We may be willing to tell a story twice, never to hear it more than once.

There is no flattery so adroit or effectual as that of implicit assent.

Genius, like humanity, rusts for want of use.

Any one may mouth out a passage with a theatrical cadence, or get upon stilts to tell his thoughts; but to write or speak with propriety and simplicity is a more difficult task. Thus it is easy to affect a pompous style, to use a word twice as big as the thing you want to express; it is not so easy to pitch upon the very word that exactly fits it.

The temple of fame stands upon the grave: the flame that burns upon its altars is kindled from the ashes of great men.

No one ever approaches perfection except by stealth, and unknown to themselves.

A full-dressed ecclesiastic is a sort of go-cart of divinity; an ethical automaton. A clerical prig is, in general, a very dangerous as well as contemptible character. The utmost that those who thus habitually confound their opinions and sentiments with the outside coverings of their bodies can aspire to, is a negative and neutral character, like wax-work figures, where the dress is done as much to the life as the man, and where both are respectable pieces of pasteboard, or harmless compositions of fleecy hosiery.