A man who writes a book, thinks himself wiser or wittier than the rest of mankind; he supposes that he can instruct or amuse them, and the publick to whom he appeals, must, after all, be the judges of his pretensions.

Books without the knowledge of life are useless.

In my early years I read very hard. It is a sad reflection, but a true one, that I knew almost as much at eighteen as I do now.

The best part of every author is in general to be found in his book, I assure you.

Modern writers are the moons of literature; they shine with reflected light, with light borrowed from the ancients.

Books have always a secret influence on the understanding.

One of the amusements of idleness is reading without fatigue of close attention; and the world, therefore, swarms with writers whose wish is not to be studied, but to be read.

A lexicographer, a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge.

You may translate books of science exactly. ... The beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which it was originally written.