The upper current of society presents no pertain criterion by which we can judge of the direction in which the under current flows.

The business of the dramatist is to keep himself out of sight, and to let nothing appear but his characters. As soon as he attracts notice to his personal feelings, the illusion is broken.

If the Sunday had not been observed as a day of rest during the last three centuries, I have not the slightest doubt that we should have been at this moment a poorer people and less civilized.

Man is so inconsistent a creature that it is impossible to reason from his beliefs to his conduct, or from one part of his belief to another.

The conformation of his mind was such that whatever was little seemed to him great, and whatever was great seemed to him little.

In that temple of silence and reconciliation where the enmities of twenty generations lie buried, in the great Abbey which has during many ages afforded a quiet resting-place to those whose minds and bodies have been shattered by the contentions of the Great Hall.

A Grecian history, perfectly written should be a complete record of the rise and progress of poetry, philosophy, and the arts.