Men of great parts are often unfortunate in the management of public business, because they are apt to go out of the common road by the quickness of their imagination. [ Swift ]

Abstracts, abridgments, summaries, etc., have the same use with burning glasses - to collect the diffused rays of wit and learning in authors, and make them point with warmth and quickness upon the reader's imagination. [ Swift ]

You should not only have attention to everything, but a quickness of attention, so as to observe at once all the people in the room - their motions, their looks and their words - and yet without staring at them and seeming to be an observer. [ Chesterfield ]

To be forward to praise others implies either great eminence, that can afford to part with applause; or great quickness of discernment, with confidence in our own judgments; or great sincerity and love of truth, getting the better of our self-love. [ Hazlitt ]