The history of the mind of Mendelssohn is one of the noblest pictures of the self-education of genius.
Friends, whose prudential counsels in the business of life are valuable in our youth, are usually prejudicial in the youth of genius.

The multitude of authors and artists originates in the ignorant admiration of their early friends; while the real genius has often been disconcerted and thrown into despair by the false judgments of his domestic circle.

The productions of taste are more unfortunate than those which depend on a chain of reasoning, or the detail of facts; these are more palpable to the common judgments of men; but taste is of such rarity, that a long life may be passed by some without once obtaining a familiar acquaintance with a mind so cultivated by knowledge, so tried by experience, and so practised by converse with the literary world, that its prophetic feeling can anticipate the public opinion.

When a young writer's first essay is shown, some, through mere inability of censure, see nothing but beauties; others, from mere imbecility, can see none; and others, out of pure malice, see nothing but faults.

"I was soon disgusted," says Gibbon, "with the modest practice of reading the manuscript to my friends.