We know no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality.

A perfect historian must possess an imagination sufficiently powerful to make his narrative affecting and picturesque; yet he must control it so absolutely as to content himself with the materials which he finds, and to refrain from supplying deficiencies by additions of his own. He must be a profound and ingenious reasoner; yet he must possess sufficient self-command to abstain from casting his facts in the mould of his hypothesis.

The most beautiful object in the world, it will be allowed, is a beautiful woman.

A man possessed of splendid talents, which he often abused, and of a sound judgment, the admonitions of which he often neglected; a man who succeeded only in an inferior department of his art, but who in that department succeeded pre-eminently.

The perfect disinterestedness and self-devotion of which men seem incapable, but which is sometimes found in women.

Temple was a man of the world amongst men of letters, a man of letters amongst men of the world.

In after-life you may have friends--fond, dear friends; but never will you have again the inexpressible love and gentleness lavished upon you which none but a mother bestows.