Boswell is the first of biographers.

In Plato's opinion, man was made for philosophy; in Bacon's opinion, philosophy was made for man.

I would rather be poor in a cottage full of books than a king without the desire to read.

Men of great conversational powers almost universally practise a sort of lively sophistry and exaggeration which deceives for the moment both themselves and their auditors.

Scotland by no means escaped the fate ordained for every country which is connected, but not incorporated, with another country of greater resources.

I don't mind your thinking slowly; I mind your publishing faster than you think.

It may be laid as an universal rule that a government which attempts more than it ought will perform less.