"Men will wrangle for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it; anything but live for it."
"If we can advance any propositions that are both true and new, these are indisputably our own, by right of discovery; and if we can repeat what is old more briefly and brightly than others, this also becomes our own, by right of conquest."
"That author, however, who has thought more than he has read, read more than he has written, and written more than he published, if he does not command success, has at least deserved it."
"We should have a glorious conflagration, if all who cannot put fire into their works would only consent to put their works into the fire."
"With books, as with companions, it is of more consequence to know which to avoid, than which to choose; for good books are as scarce as good companions."
"A volume, therefore, that contains more words than ideas, like a tree that has more foliage than fruit, may suit those to resort to, who want not to feast, but to dream and to slumber."
"Discretion has been termed the better part of valour, and it is more certain, that diffidence is the better part of knowledge."