It is possible to be below flattery as well as above it. One who trusts nobody will not trust sycophants. One who does not value real glory will not value its counterfeit.

The highest eulogy which can be pronounced on the Revolution of 1688 is this that this was our last Revolution.

And how can man die better than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods?

Knowledge advances by steps, and not by leaps.

There was, it is said, a criminal in Italy who was suffered to make his choice between Guicciardini and the galleys. He chose the history. But the war of Pisa was too much for him; he changed his mind, and went to the oars.

He who, in an enlightened and literary society, aspires to be a great poet, must first become a little child. He must take to pieces the whole web of his mind. He must unlearn much of that knowledge which has perhaps constituted hitherto his chief title to superiority. His very talents will be a hindrance to him.

He was a rake among scholars, and a scholar among rakes.