I strove with none, for none was worth my strife. Nature I loved and, next to Nature, Art: I warm'd both hands before the fire of life; It sinks, and I am ready to depart.

Every great writer is a writer of history, let him treat on almost what subject he may.

Friendships are the purer and the more ardent, the nearer they come to the presence of God, the Sun not only of righteousness but of love.

Ridicule has followed the vestiges of truth, but never usurped her place.

Clear writers, like fountains, do not seem so deep as they are; the turbid look the most profound.

The writing of the wise are the only riches our posterity cannot squander.

Study is the bane of childhood, the oil of youth, the indulgence of adulthood, and a restorative in old age.