The notion of the free play of the mind upon all subjects being a pleasure in itself, being an object of desire, being an essential provider of elements without which a nation's spirit, whatever compensations it may have for them, must, in the long run, die of inanition, hardly enters into an Englishman's thoughts.

Burke is so great because, almost alone in England, he brings thought to bear upon politics, he saturates politics with thought.

I am bound by my own definition of criticism: a disinterested endeavour to learn and propagate the best that is known and thought in the world.

There is the world of ideas and there is the world of practice; the French are often for suppressing the one and the English the other; but neither is to be su…

Poetry fettered fetters the human race. Nations are destroyed, or flourish, in proportion as their poetry, painting, and music are destroyed or flourish!

One ought not to hoard culture. It should be adapted and infused into society as a leaven. Liberality of culture does not mean illiberality of its benefits.

Em geral, nos outros, os Portugueses, so comecamos a ser idiotas - quando chegamos a idade da razao. Em pequenos temos todos uma pontinha de genio.