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.

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

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

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