It is certain that satirical poems were common at Rome from a very early period. The rustics, who lived at a distance from the seat of government, and took little part in the strife of factions, gave vent to their petty local animosities in coarse Fescennine verse.

I shall cheerfully bear the reproach of having descended below the dignity of history.

A man possessed of splendid talents, which he often abused, and of a sound judgment, the admonitions of which he often neglected; a man who succeeded only in an inferior department of his art, but who in that department succeeded pre-eminently.

We hold that the most wonderful and splendid proof of genius is a great poem produced in a civilized age.

Scotland by no means escaped the fate ordained for every country which is connected, but not incorporated, with another country of greater resources.

Everybody's business is nobody's business.

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.