Isn't it better to have men being ungrateful than to miss a chance to do good?

Those authors into whose hands nature has placed a magic wand, with which they no sooner touch us than we forget the unhappiness in life, than the darkness leaves our soul, and we are reconciled to existence, should be placed among the benefactors of the human race.

Only passions, and great passions, can raise the soul to great things. Without them there is no sublimity, either in morals or in creativity. Art returns to infancy, and virtue becomes small-minded.

Gentleness and peacefulness regulate our proceedings; theirs are dictated by fury. We employ reason, they accumulate faggots. They preach nothing but love, and breathe nothing but blood. Their words are humane, but their hearts are cruel.

Shakespeare's fault is not the greatest into which a poet may fall. It merely indicates a deficiency of taste.

Integrity is the evidence of all civil virtues.

What a fine comedy this world would be if one did not play a part in it.