In science, reason is the guide; in poetry, taste. The object of the one is truth, which is uniform and indivisible; the object of the other is beauty, which is multiform and varied.

Justice to my readers compels me to admit that I write because I have nothing to do; justice to myself induces me to add that I will cease to write the moment I have nothing to say.

All poets pretend to write for immortality, but the whole tribe have no objection to present pay and present praise.

Those that are the loudest in their threats are the weakest in their actions.

He that dies a martyr proves that he was not a knave, but by no means that he was not a fool.

Envy ought to have no place allowed it in the hearts of people; for the goods of this present world are so vile and low that they are beneath it; and those of the future world are so vast and exalted that they are above it.

Pain may be said to follow pleasure as its shadow.