Wherever literature consoles sorrow or assuages pain; wherever it brings gladness to eyes which fail with wakefulness and tears, and ache for the dark house and the long sleep,—there is exhibited in its noblest form the immortal influence of Athens.

Thomas B Macaulay (1800-1859): On Mitford's History of Greece. 1824.

  You know who critics are?—the men who have failed in literature and art.

Benjamin Disraeli (Earl Beaconsfield) (1805-1881): Lothair. Chap. xxxv.

  Wharton quotes Johnson as saying of Dr. Campbell, "He is the richest author that ever grazed the common of literature."

  We cultivate literature on a little oatmeal.

Sydney Smith (1769-1845): Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 23.