Some men are called sagacious, merely on account of their avarice; whereas a child can clench its fist the moment it is born.

There is nothing more universally commended than a fine day; the reason is that people can commend it without envy.

I know not whether increasing years do not cause us to esteem fewer people and to bear with more.

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.

I hate a style, as I do a garden, that is wholly flat and regular; that slides along like an eel, and never rises to what one can call an inequality.

The lines of poetry, the period of prose, and even the texts of Scripture most frequently recollected and quoted, are those which are felt to be preeminently musical.

Grandeur and beauty are so very opposite, that you often diminish the one as you increase the other. Variety is most akin to the latter, simplicity to the former.