Motives by excess reverse their very nature and instead of exciting, stun and stupefy the mind.

General principles... are to the facts as the root and sap of a tree to its leaves.

Readers may be divided into four classes: 1) Sponges, who absorb all that they read and return it in nearly the same state, only a little dirtied. 2) Sand-glasses, who retain nothing and are content to get through a book for the sake of getting through the time. 3) Strain-bags, who retain merely the dregs of what they read. 4) Mogul diamonds, equally rare and valuable, who profit by what they read, and enable others to profit by it also

Finally, good sense is the body of poetic genius, fancy its drapery, motion its life, and imagination the soul that is everywhere and in each; and forms all into one graceful and intelligent whole.

We must follow the old authorities and precedents in criminal matters.

The devil is not, indeed, perfectly humorous, but that is only because he is the extreme of all humor.

The worth and value of knowledge is in proportion to the worth and value of its object.