The most silent people are generally those who think most highly of themselves.

By despising all that has preceded us, we teach others to despise ourselves.

Let a man's talents or virtues be what they may, he will only feel satisfaction in his society as he is satisfied in himself.

Man is a poetical animal, and delights in fiction.

The greatest pleasure in life is that of reading while we are young. I have had as much of this pleasure perhaps as any one.

Genius is native to the soil where it grows — is fed by the air, and warmed by the sun — and is not a hot - house plant or an exotic.

As we are poetical in our natures, so we delight in fable.