A man's reputation is not in his own keeping, but lies at the mercy of the profligacy of others. Calumny requires no proof. The throwing out [of] malicious imputations against any character leaves a stain, which no after-refutation can wipe out. To create an unfavorable impression, it is not necessary that certain things should be true, but that they have been said. The imagination is of so delicate a texture that even words wound it.

The most learned are often the most narrow minded.

The seat of knowledge is in the head; of wisdom, in the heart. We are sure to judge wrong, if we do not feel right.

Man is a poetical animal, and delights in fiction.

We must overact our part in some measure, in order to produce any effect at all.

There is a heroism in crime as well as in virtue. Vice and infamy have their altars and their religion.

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