''The genius of the Spanish people is exquisitely subtle, without being at all acute; hence there is so much humour and so little wit in their literature.''
''Exclusively of the abstract sciences, the largest and worthiest portion of our knowledge consists of aphorisms: and the greatest and best of men is but an aphorism.''
''How inimitably graceful children are in general before they learn to dance!''
''To see him act is like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning.''
''Every reform, however necessary, will by weak minds be carried to an excess, which will itself need reforming.''
''No man was ever yet a great poet, without being at the same time a profound philosopher.''
''Some men are like musical glasses; to produce their finest tones, you must keep them wet.''
''That willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith.''
''The three great ends which a statesman ought to propose to himself in the government of a nation, are,—1. Security to possessors; 2. Facility to acquirers; and, 3. Hope to all.''
''To most men, experience is like the stern lights of a ship, which illumine only the track it has passed.''
''My case is a species of madness, only that it is a derangement of the Volition, & not of the intellectual faculties.''
''Humour is consistent with pathos, whilst wit is not.''
''The principle of the Gothic architecture is infinity made imaginable.''
''There are three classes into which all the women past seventy that ever I knew were to be divided: 1. That dear old soul; 2. That old woman; 3. That old witch.''
''The man's desire is for the woman; but the woman's desire is rarely other than for the desire of the man.''
''Summer has set in with its usual severity.''
''Brute animals have the vowel sounds; man only can utter consonants.''
''Until you understand a writer's ignorance, presume yourself ignorant of his understanding.''
''In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.''
''Intense study of the Bible will keep any writer from being vulgar, in point of style.''
''I do not call the sod under my feet my country; but language-religion-government-blood-identity in these makes men of one country.''
