Cruelty, if we consider it as a crime, is the greatest of all; if we consider it as a madness, we are equally justifiable in applying to it the readiest and the surest means of oppression.

Many love music but for music's sake, Many because her touches can awake Thoughts that repose within the breast half-dead, And rise to follow where she loves to lead. What various feelings come from days gone by! What tears from far-off sources dim the eye! Few, when light fingers with sweet voices play, And melodies swell, pause, and melt away, Mind how at every touch, at every tone, A spark of life hath glistened and hath gone.

All schools of philosophy, and almost all authors, are rather to be frequented for exercise than for weight.

Next in criminality to him who violates the laws of his country, is he who violates the language.

Prose on certain occasions can bear a great deal of poetry; on the other hand, poetry sinks and swoons under a moderate weight of prose.

Men, like nails, lose their usefulness when they lose their direction and begin to bend.

A mercantile democracy may govern long and widely; a mercantile aristocracy cannot stand.