Damn the Solar System. Bad light; planets too distant; pestered with comets; feeble contrivance; could make a better myself.

An obligation is something which constrains or induces us to act.

Simplicity of manner is the last attainment. Men are very long afraid of being natural, from the dread of being taken for ordinary.

Opinions founded on prejudice are always sustained with the greatest of violence.

Satire is a composition of salt and mercury; and it depends upon the different mixture and preparation of those ingredients, that it comes out a noble medicine, or a rank poison.

The disease and its medicine are like two factions in a besieged town; they tear one another to pieces, but both unite against their common enemy, Nature.

The cheat ambition, eager to espouse dominion, courts it with a lying show, and shines in borrowed pomp to serve a turn.