He is the best physician who is the most ingenious inspirer of hope.

Centres, or centre-pieces of wood, are put by builders under an arch of stone while it is in the process of construction till the keystone is put in. Just such is the use Satan makes of pleasures to construct evil habits upon; the pleasure lasts till the habit is fully formed; but that done the habit may stand eternal. The pleasures are sent for firewood, and the hell begins in this life.

In Shakespeare one sentence begets the next naturally; the meaning is all inwoven. He goes on kindling like a meteor through the dark atmosphere.

Cant is the parrot talk of a profession.

As I live and am a man, this is an unexaggerated tale - my dreams become the substances of my life.

To see him act is like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning.

He holds him with his glittering eye, And listens like a three years' child.