The chain of habit coils itself around the heart like a serpent, to gnaw and stifle it.

They are the only honest hypocrites, their life is a voluntary dream, a studied madness.

An orator can hardly get beyond commonplaces: if he does he gets beyond his hearers.

True modesty and true pride are much the same thing: both consist in setting a just value on ourselves - neither more nor less.

To write a genuine familiar or truly English style is to write as anyone would speak in common conversation, who had a thorough command and choice of words, or who could discourse with ease, force, and perspicuity, setting aside all pedantic and oratorical flourishes.

The greatest pleasure in life is that of reading while we are young. I have had as much of this pleasure perhaps as any one.

What passes in the world for talent or dexterity or enterprise is often only a want of moral principle. We may succeed where others fail, not from a greater share of invention, but from not being nice in the choice of expedients.