A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.

Genius now and then produces a lucky trifle. We still read the Dove of Anacreon, and Sparrow of Catullus; and a writer naturally pleases himself with a performance which owes nothing to the subject.

Oratory is the power of beating down your adversary's arguments and putting better in their place.

The uniform necessities of human nature produce in a great measure uniformity of life, and for part of the day make one place like another; to dress and to undress, to eat and to sleep, are the same in London as in the country.

Let us be quick to repent of injuries while repentance may not be a barren anguish.

...it will not always happen that the success of a poet is proportionate to his labor.

Players, Sir! I look on them as no better than creatures set upon tables and joint stools to make faces and produce laughter, like dancing dogs.