A wise man will always be a Christian, because the perfection of wisdom is to know where lies tranquillity of mind and how to attain it, which Christianity teaches.

Prose on certain occasions can bear a great deal of poetry; on the other hand, poetry sinks and swoons under a moderate weight of prose.

Modesty and diffidence make a man unfit for public affairs; they also make him unfit for brothels.

When a woman hath ceased to be quite the same to us, it matters little how different she becomes.

All schools of philosophy, and almost all authors, are rather to be frequented for exercise than for weight.

The flame of anger, bright and brief, sharpens the barb of love.

Vast objects of remote altitude must be looked at a long while before they are ascertained. Ages are the telescope tubes that must be lengthened out for Shakespeare; and generations of men serve but a single witness to his claims.