Men are often capable of greater things than they perform - They are sent into the world with bills of credit, and seldom draw to their full extent.

Lord Bath used to say of women, who are apt to say that they will follow their own judgment, that they could not follow a worse guide.

Who has begun has half done. Have the courage to be wise. Begin!

Shakespeare had no tutors but nature and genius. He caught his faults from the bad taste of his contemporaries. In an age still less civilized Shakespeare might have been wilder, but would not have been vulgar.

[Corneille] was inspired by Roman authors and Roman spirit, Racine with delicacy by the polished court of Louis XIV.

An ancient prophecy ... pronounced, That the castle and lordship of Otranto should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it!

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.