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.

We often forget our dreams so speedily: if we cannot catch them as they are passing out at the door, we never set eyes on them again.

Power is pleasure; and pleasure sweetens pain.

The love of letters is the forlorn hope of the man of letters. His ruling passion is the love of fame.

Vulgar prejudices are those which arise out of accident, ignorance, or authority; natural prejudices are those which arise out of the constitution of the human mind itself.

The mind of man is like a clock that is always running down, and requires to be constantly wound up.

Learning is, in too many cases, but a foil to common sense; a substitute for true knowledge. Books are less often made use of as spectacles to look at nature with, than as blinds to keep out its strong light and shifting scenery from weak eyes and indolent dispositions. The learned are mere literary drudges.