The most effective way of attacking vice is to expose it to public ridicule. People can put up with rebukes but they cannot bear being laughed at: they are prepared to be wicked but they dislike appearing ridiculous.

Anyone may be an honorable man, and yet write verse badly.

The world, dear Agnes, is a strange affair.

Its as if you think you'd never find Reason and the Sacred intertwined

Love is a great master. It teaches us to be what we never were.

It's an odd job, making decent people laugh.

The art of flatterers is to take advantage of the foibles of the great, to foster their errors, and never to give advice which may annoy.