The errors of former times are recorded for our instruction in order that we may avoid their repition.

For works of the mind really great there is no old age, no decrepitude. It is inconceivable that a time should come when Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, should not ring in the ears of civilized man.

No one ever became great except through many and great mistakes.

It is no use for the honorable member to shake his head in the teeth of his own words.

Mediocrity is now, as formerly, dangerous, commonly fatal, to the poet; but among even the successful writers of prose, those who rise sensibly above it are the very rarest exceptions.

Avarice, where it has full dominion, excludes every other passion.

I am certain, from experience, of the immense advantage of strict account-keeping in early life. It is just like learning the grammar then, which when once learned need not be referred to afterwards.