The aphorism: a platitude that swerves, or slides all the way around.

If the current is right, one can drift to success.

When poets go off the boil, they sound like bumble bees; when critics do, they sound like sewing machines.

The dignified catastrophes of tragedy bear little resemblance to the slow ruin inflicted by life.

Weakness is a better teacher than strength. Weakness must learn to understand the obstacles that strength brushes aside.

Vice is a dreary business. And virtue is not a lot of fun, either.

Death is always there, just beneath the surface.