People of humor are always in some degree people of genius.

I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry; that is, prose = words in their best order; - poetry = the best words in the best order.

We have no adequate conception of the perfection of the ancient tragic dance. The pleasure which the greeks received from it had for its basis difference; & the more unfit the vehicle, the more lively was the curiosity & intense the delights at seeing the difficulty overcome.

Good and bad men are each less so than they seem.

I do not call the sod under my feet my country; but language-religion-government-blood-identity in these makes men of one country.

Humor is consistent with pathos, whilst wit is not.

Chance is but the pseudonym of God for those particular cases, which he does not choose to acknowledge openly with his own sign manual.