When a man says he sees nothing in a book, he very often means that he does not see himself in it: which, if it is not a comedy or a satire, is likel….

The most mischievous liars are those who keep sliding on the verge of truth..

One saves oneself much pain, by taking pains; much trouble, by taking trouble..

When will talkers refrain from evil speaking: when listeners refrain from evil-hearing..

Instead of watching the bird as it flies above our heads, we chase his shadow along the ground; and, finding we cannot grasp it, we conclude it to be….

In a mist the heights can for the most part see each other; but the valleys cannot..

Why do critics make such an outcry against tragicomedies? is not life one?.

A lawyer's brief will be brief, before a freethinker thinks freely..

I was surprised just now at seeing a cobweb around a knocker; for it was not on the door of heaven..

Few take advice, or physic, without wry faces at it..

The difference between those whom the world esteems as good and those whom it condemns as bad, is in many cases little else than that the former have….

The poet sees things as they look. Is this having a faculty the less? or a sense the more?.

They who disbelieve in virtue because man has never been found perfect, might as reasonably deny the sun because it is not always noon..

The praises of others may be of use in teaching us, not what we are, but what we ought to be..

Poetry is to philosophy what the Sabbath is to the rest of the week..

Nobody who is afraid of laughing, and heartily too, at his friend, can be said to have a true and thorough love for him..

Life may be defined to be the power of self-augmentation or assimilation, not of self-nurture; for then a steam-engine over a coal-pit might be made ….

The thoughtful excitement of lonely rambles, of gardening, and of other like occupations, where the mind has leisure to must during the healthful act….

Some men so dislike the dust kicked up by the generation they belong to, that, being unable to pass, they lag behind it..

Excessive indulgence to others, especially to children is in fact only self-indulgence under an alias..

Much of this world's wisdom is still acquired by necromancy,--by consulting the oracular dead..