True wit, to every man, is that which falls on another.

Hope is the mother of faith.

Great men lose somewhat of their greatness by being near us; ordinary men gain much.

Authors are like cattle going to a fair: those of the same field can never move on without butting one another.

Vast objects of remote altitude must be looked at a long while before they are ascertained. Ages are the telescope tubes that must be lengthened out for Shakespeare; and generations of men serve but a single witness to his claims.

If there were no falsehood in the world, there would be no doubt, if there were no doubt, there would be no inquiry; if no inquiry, no wisdom, no knowledge, no genius; and Fancy herself would lie muffled up in her robe, inactive, pale, and bloated.

Fancy is imagination in her youth and adolescence. Fancy is always excursive; imagination, not seldom, is sedate.