Nothing is so useless as a general maxim.

If ever Shakespeare rants, it is not when his imagination is hurrying him along, but when he is hurrying his imagination along.

The effective strength of sects is not to be ascertained merely by counting heads.

Genius is subject to the same laws which regulate the production of cotton and molasses.

Generalization is necessary to the advancement of knowledge; but particularity is indispensable to the creations of the imagination.

Byron owed the vast influence which he exercised over his contemporaries at least as much to his gloomy egotism as to the real power of his poetry.

Propriety of thought and propriety of diction are commonly found together. Obscurity and affectation are the two greatest faults of style. Obscurity of expression generally springs from confusion of ideas; and the same wish to dazzle, at any cost, which produces affectation in the manner of a writer, is likely to produce sophistry in his reasonings.