I have often said, and oftener think, that this world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel - a solution of why Democritus laughed and Heraclitus wept.

The curse of modern times is, that almost everything does create controversy.

The Methodists love your big sinners, as proper subjects to work upon.

Shakespeare, with an improved education and in a more enlightened age, might easily have attained the purity and correction of Racine; but nothing leads one to suppose that Racine in a barbarous age would have attained the grandeur, force and nature of Shakespeare.

I do not admire politicians; but when they are excellent in their way, one cannot help allowing them their due.

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

At last some curious traveller from Lima will visit England, and give a description of the ruins of St. Paul's, like the editions of Baalbec and Palmyra.