Art is the filigrain of a little mind, and is twisted and involved and curled, but would reach farther if laid out in a straight line.

I shun authors, and would never have been one myself, if it obliged me to keep such bad company.

Poetry is a beautiful way of spoiling prose, and the laborious art of exchanging plain sense for harmony.

Lawyers and rogues are vermin not easily rooted out of a rich soil.

Had I children, my utmost endeavors would be to make them musicians.

How posterity will laugh at us, one way or other! If half a dozen break their necks, and balloonism is exploded, we shall be called fools for having imagined it could be brought to use: if it should be turned to account, we shall be ridiculed for having doubted.

Life is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel.