Those who speak ill of the spiritual life, although they come and go by day, are like the smith's bellows: they take breath but are not alive.

[Science is] the desire to know causes.

Wonder at the first sight of works of art may be the effect of ignorance and novelty; but real admiration and permanent delight in them are the growth of taste and knowledge.

A nickname is the hardest stone that the devil can throw at a man.

To give a reason for anything is to breed a doubt of it.

It is the vice of scholars to suppose that there is no knowledge in the world but that of books.

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.