No man in the world acts up to his own standard of right.

I have seen the hippopotamus, both asleep and awake; and I can assure you that, awake or asleep, he is the ugliest of the works of God.

Every age and every nation has certain characteristic vices, which prevail almost universally, which scarcely any person scruples to avow, and which even rigid moralists but faintly censure. Succeeding generations change the fashion of their morals with the fashion of their hats and their coaches; take some other kind of wickedness under their patronage, and wonder at the depravity of their ancestors.

We deplore the outrages which accompany revolutions. But the more violent the outrages, the more assured we feel that a revolution was necessary.

The most beautiful object in the world, it will be allowed, is a beautiful woman.

More sinners are cursed at not because we despise their sins but because we envy their success at sinning.

Finesse is the best adaptation of means to circumstances.