The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to England.

The Irish are a fair people: They never speak well of one another.

Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind.

Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.

Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present.

Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife; he is always proud of himself as the source of it.

Criticism, as it was first instituted by Aristotle, was meant as a standard of judging well.

Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at very small expense. He whom nature has made weak, and idleness keeps ignorant, may yet support his vanity by the name of a critic.

I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works. An assault upon a town is a bad thing; but starving it is still worse.

I am sorry I have not learnt to play at cards. It is very useful in life: it generates kindness, and consolidates society.