Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own.

Without life there can be no action — no objects of pursuit — no restless desires — no tormenting passions. Hence it is that we fondly cling to it — that we dread its termination as the close, not of enjoyment, but of hope.

To create an unfavorable impression, it is not necessary that certain things should be true, but that they have been said.

Talent is the capacity of doing anything that depends on application and industry and it is a voluntary power, while genius is involuntary.

Who likes not his business, his business likes not him.

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.

The best kind of conversation is that which may be called thinking aloud.