If we may believe our logicians, man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter. He has a heart capable of mirth, and naturally disposed to it.

It is odd to consider the connection between despotism and barbarity, and how the making one person more than man makes the rest less.

Men who cherish for women the highest respect are seldom popular with them.

But in all despotic governments, though a particular prince may favour arts and letter, there is a natural degeneracy of mankind.

There is nothing that more betrays a base ungenerous spirit than the giving of secret stabs to a man's reputation. Lampoons and satires that are written with wit and spirit are like poisoned darts, which not only inflict a wound, but make it incurable.

It happened very providentially, to the honor of the Christian religion, that it did not take its rise in the dark illiterate ages of the world, but at a time when arts and sciences were at their height.

Words, when well chosen, have so great a force in them, that a description often gives us more lively ideas than the sight of things themselves.