The desire of posthumous fame and the dread of posthumous reproach and execration are feelings from the influence of which scarcely any man is perfectly free, and which in many men are powerful and constant motives of action.

He who, in an enlightened and literary society, aspires to be a great poet, must first become a little child.

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.

We do not think it necessary to prove that a quack medicine is poison; let the vender prove it to be sanative.

The business of the dramatist is to keep himself out of sight, and to let nothing appear but his characters. As soon as he attracts notice to his personal feelings, the illusion is broken.

No man who is correctly informed as to the past will be disposed to take a morose or desponding view of the present.

There is no country in Europe which is so easy to over-run as Spain; there is no country which it is more difficult to conquer.