It is only with the best judges that the highest works of art would lose none of their honor by being seen in their rudiments..

Nobility of birth is like a cipher; it has no power in itself, like wealth or talent; but, it tells with all the power of a cipher when added to eith….

Sombre thoughts and fancies often require a little real soil or substance to flourish in; they are the dark pine-trees which take root in, and frown ….

Friends should be very delicate and careful in administering pity as medicine, when enemies use the same article as poison..

It is vain to be always looking toward the future and never acting toward it..

There are some books and characters so pleasant, or rather which contain so much that is pleasant, that criticism is perplexed or silent. The hounds ….

It would be a great advantage to some schoolmasters if they would steal two hours a day from their pupils and give their own minds the benefit of the….

There is scarcely a man who is not conscious of the benefits which his own mind has received from the performance of single acts of benevolence. How ….

We should remember that it is quite as much a part of friendship to be delicate in its demands as to be ample in its performances..

Where there is much general deformity nature has often, perhaps generally, accorded some one bodily grace even in over-measure. So, no doubt, with th….

Where we find echoes, we generally find emptiness and hollowness; it is the contrary with the echoes of the heart..

Those who, from the desire of our perfection, have the keenest eye far our faults generally compensate for it by taking a higher view of our merits t….

Strict punctuality is perhaps the cheapest virtue which can give force to an otherwise utterly insignificant character..