The wisest man is he who does not fancy that he is so at all.

Though you be sprung in direct line from Hercules, if you show a lowborn meanness, that long succession of ancestors whom you disgrace are so many witnesses against you; and this grand display of their tarnished glory but serves to make your ignominy more evident.

The world is full of fools; and he who would not wish to see one, must not only shut himself up alone, but must also break his looking-glass.

Who is content with nothing possesses all things.

Honor is like an island, rugged and without a beach; once we have left it, we can never return.

But satire, ever moral, ever new, Delights the reader and instructs him, too. She, if good sense refine her sterling page, Oft shakes some rooted folly of the age.

Whate'er is well conceived is clearly said, And the words to say it flow with ease.