The most certain mode of making people content with us is to make them content with themselves.

Wit lives in the present, but genius survives the future.

Genius is the gold in the mine, talent is the miner who works and brings it out.

Many minds that have withstood the most severe trials have been broken down by a succession of ignoble cares.

The difference between weakness and wickedness is much less than people suppose; and the consequences are nearly always the same.

There is no knowledge for which so great a price is paid as a knowledge of the world; and no one ever became an adept in it except at the expense of a hardened or a wounded heart.

Satire, like conscience, reminds us of what we often wish to forget.