Critics must excuse me if I compare them to certain animals called asses, who, by gnawing vines, originally taught the great advantage of pruning them.

Some men use no other means to acquire respect than by insisting on it; and it sometimes answers their purpose, as it does a highwayman's in regard to money.

Learning, like money, may be of so base a coin as to be utterly void of use.

Harmony of period and melody of style have greater weight than is generally imagined in the judgment we pass upon writing and writers. As a proof of this, let us reflect what texts of scripture, what lines in poetry, or what periods we most remember and quote, either in verse or prose, and we shall find them to be only musical ones.

Every good poet includes a critic, but the reverse is not true.

A large retinue upon a small income, like a large cascade upon a small stream, tends to discover its tenuity.

The fund of sensible discourse is limited; that of jest and badinerie is infinite.