Nothing in our times has become so unattractive as virtue.

The ancients understood the regulation of power better than the regulation of liberty.

Perhaps Samuel Johnson was a great man; he was certainly a drumbling one.

So much of our lives is given over to the consideration of our imperfections that there is no time to improve our imaginary virtues. The truth is we only perfect our vices, and man is a worse creature when he dies than he was when he was born.

The majority of persons choose their wives with as little prudence as they eat. They see a troll with nothing else to recommend her but a pair of thighs and choice hunkers, and so smart to void their seed that they marry her at once. They imagine they can live in marvelous contentment with handsome feet and ambrosial buttocks. Most men are accredited fools shortly after they leave the womb.

The Americans have always been food, sex, and spirit revivalists.

Nothing in our times has become so unattractive as virtue.