The only effect of public punishment is to show the rabble how bravely it can be borne; and that every one who hath lost a toe-nail hath suffered worse.

I sometimes think that the most plaintive ditty has brought a fuller joy and of longer duration to its composer that the conquest of Persia to the Macedonian.

That which moveth the heart most is the best poetry; it comes nearest unto God, the source of all power.

If there were no falsehood in the world, there would be no doubt, if there were no doubt, there would be no inquiry; if no inquiry, no wisdom, no knowledge, no genius; and Fancy herself would lie muffled up in her robe, inactive, pale, and bloated.

No thoroughly occupied person was ever found really miserable.

Falsehood is for a season.

States, like men, have their growth, their manhood, their decrepitude, their decay.