Nobody will laugh long who deals much with opium: its pleasures even are of a grave and solemn complexion.

Even imperfection itself may have its ideal or perfect state.

Cows are amongst the gentlest of breathing creatures; none show more passionate tenderness to their young when deprived of them; and, in short, I am not ashamed to profess a deep love for these quiet creatures.

The whole body of the arts and sciences composes one vast machinery for the irritation and development of the human intellect.

A promise is binding in the inverse ratio of the numbers to whom it is made.

Under our present enormous accumulation of books, I do affirm that a most miserable distraction of choice must be very generally incident to the times; that the symptoms of it are in fact very prevalent, and that one of the chief symptoms is an enormous 'gluttonism' for books.

There is first the literature of KNOWLEDGE, and secondly, the literature of POWER. The function of the first is -- to teach; the function of the second is -- to move.