I begin where most people end, with a full conviction of the emptiness of all sorts of ambition, and the unsatisfactory nature of all human pleasures.

Not to go back is somewhat to advance, and men must walk, at least, before they dance.

Did some more sober critics come abroad? If wrong, I smil'd; if right, I kiss'd the rod.

In lazy apathy let stoics boast, their virtue fixed, 'tis fixed as in a frost.

Pride, where wit fails, steps in to our defence, and fills up all the mighty void of sense.

Still when the lust of tyrant power succeeds, some Athens perishes, or some Tully bleeds.

Oft in dreams invention we bestow to change a flounce or add a furbelow.