Always to be right, always to trample forward, and never to doubt, are not these the great qualities with which dullness takes the lead in the world?

if you are not allowed to touch the heart sometimes in spite of syntax, and are not to be loved until you all know the difference between trimeter and trameter, may all Poetry go to the deuce, and every schoolmaster perish miserably!

Diffidence is a sort of false modesty.

It's a great comfort to some people to groan over their imaginary ills.

Fairy roses, fairy rings, turn out sometimes troublesome things.

What a charming reconciler and peacemaker money is!

It seems to me one cannot sit down in that place [the Round Reading room of the British Museum] without a heart full of grateful reverence. I own to have said my grace at the table, and to have thanked Heaven for my English birthright, freely to partake of these beautiful books, and speak the truth I find there.