The most noble criticism is that in which the critic is not the antagonist so much as the rival of the author.
Certain it is that their power increased always in an exact proportion to the weakness of the Caliphate, and, without doubt, in some of the most distracted periods of the Arabian rule, the Hebrew Princes rose into some degree of local and temporary importance.
Their chief residence was Bagdad, where they remained until the eleventh century, an age fatal in Oriental history, from the disasters of which the Princes of the Captivity were not exempt.
Fortune has rarely condescended to be the companion of genius.
Time the great destroyer of other men's happiness, only enlarges the patrimony of literature to its possessor.
The defects of great men are the consolation of the dunces.
All is extremely genteel; and there is almost as much repose as in the golden saloons of the contiguous palaces. At any rate, if there be as much vice, there is as little crime.
It is a wretched taste to be gratified with mediocrity when the excellent lies before us.
Literature is an avenue to glory, ever open for those ingenious men who are deprived of honours or of wealth.
The wise make proverbs, and fools repeat them.
The wisdom of the wise, and the experience of ages, may be preserved by quotation.
The golden hour of invention must terminate like other hours, and when the man of genius returns to the cares, the duties, the vexations, and the amusements of life, his companions behold him as one of themselves - the creature of habits and infirmities.
The delight of opening a new pursuit, or a new course of reading, imparts the vivacity and novelty of youth even to old age.
