I avoid talking before the youth of the age as I would dancing before them: for if one's tongue don't move in the steps of the day, and thinks to please by its old graces, it is only an object of ridicule.

The wisest prophets make sure of the event first.

Let the French but have England, and they won't want to conquer it.

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.

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

In science, mistakes always precede the truth

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