“The pleasures of sudden wonder are soon exhausted, and the mind can only repose on the stability of truth.”

“Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.”

“The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.”

“Imitations produce pain or pleasure, not because they are mistaken for realities, but because they bring realities to mind.”

“Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.”

“There is no problem the mind of man can set that the mind of man cannot solve.”

“The opinions prevalent in one age, as truths above the reach of controversy, are confuted and rejected in another, and rise again to reception in remoter times. Thus the human mind is kept in motion without progress.”