We often repent of our first thoughts, and scarce ever of our second.

This world is a comedy, not Life.

[King René of Anjou (1409-80)] would not listen to the news of his son having lost the Kingdom of Naples, because he would not bedisturbed when painting a picture of a partridge.

It is difficult to divest one's self of vanity; because impossible to divest one's self of self-love.

The best sun we have is made of Newcastle coal, and I am determined never to reckon upon any other.

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.

The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well.