There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking.

The greatest man is he who forms the taste of a nation; the next greatest is he who corrupts it.

Words should be employed as the means, not the end; language is the instrument, conviction is the work.

It is but a poor eloquence which only shows that the orator can talk.

If you have great talents, industry will improve them; if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiency.

Few have been taught to any purpose who have not been their own teachers.

Invention, strictly speaking, is little more than a new combination of those images which have been previously gathered and deposited in the memory; nothing can come of nothing.

All the gestures of children are graceful; the reign of distortion and unnatural attitudes commences with the introduction of the dancing master.

A room hung with pictures is a room hung with thoughts.