45 quotes
Candour is the brightest gem of criticism.
Curiosities of Literature (1791)
An excessive indulgence in the pleasures of social life constitutes the great interests of a luxuriant and opulent age
The Literary Character, Illustrated by the History of Men of Genius (1795)
Self-love is a principle of action; but among no class of human beings has nature so profusely distributed this principle of life and action as through the whole sensitive family of genius.
Solitude is the nurse of enthusiasm, and enthusiasm is the true parent of genius. In all ages solitude has been called for—has been flown to.
To bend and prostrate oneself to express sentiments of respect, appears to be a natural motion.
Curiosities of Literature (1791)
The negroes are lovers of ludicrous actions, and hence all their ceremonies seem farcical.
Curiosities of Literature (1791)
The most noble criticism is that in which the critic is not the antagonist so much as the rival of the author.
Fortune has rarely condescended to be the companion of genius.
The greater part of our writers have become so original, that no one cares to imitate them: and those who never quote in return are seldom quoted.
But, indeed, we prefer books to pounds; and we love manuscripts better than florins; and we prefer small pamphlets to war horses.
The poet and the painter are only truly great by the mutual influences of their studies, and the jealousy of glory has only produced an idle contest.
The Literary Character, Illustrated by the History of Men of Genius (1795)
It does at first appear that an astronomer rapt in abstraction, while he gazes on a star, must feel more exquisite delight than a farmer who is conducting his team.
The poet must be alike polished by an intercourse with the world as with the studies of taste; one to whom labour is negligence, refinement a science, and art a nature.
A nickname a man may chance to wear out; but a system of calumny, pursued by a faction, may descend even to posterity. This principle has taken full effect on this state favorite.
Whenever we would prepare the mind by a forcible appeal, an opening quotation is a symphony preluding on the chords those tones we are about to harmonize.
Curiosities of Literature (1791)
And, after all, it is style alone by which posterity will judge of a great work, for an author can have nothing truly his own but his style.
If the golden gate of preferment is not usually opened to men of real merit, persons of no worth have entered it in a most extraordinary manner.
Curiosities of Literature (1791)
One may quote till one compiles.
A work, however, should be judged by its design and its execution, and not by any preconceived notion of what it ought to be according to the critic, rather than the author.
The Literary Character, Illustrated by the History of Men of Genius (1795)
Great collections of books are subject to certain accidents besides the damp, the worms, and the rats; one not less common is that of the borrowers, not to say a word of the purloiners.