Greatness is great power, producing great effects. It is not enough that a man has great power in himself, he must shew it to all the world in a way that cannot be hid or gainsaid.

Anyone who has passed though the regular gradations of a classical education, and is not made a fool by it, may consider himself as having had a very narrow escape.

Those who can command themselves command others.

The humblest painter is a true scholar; and the best of scholars the scholar of nature.

Our notions with respect to the importance of life, and our attachment to it, depend on a principle which has very little to do with its happiness or its misery. The love of life is, in general, the effect not of our enjoyments, but of our passions.

A thing is not vulgar merely because it is common.

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