A strong passion for any object will ensure success, for the desire of the end will point out the means.

Humour is the describing the ludicrous as it is in itself; wit is the exposing it, by comparing or contrasting it with something else. Humour is, as it were, the growth of nature and accident; wit is the product of art and fancy.

Hope is the best possession. None are completely wretched but those who are without hope. Few are reduced so low as that.

That which is not, shall never be; that which is, shall never cease to be. To the wise, these truths are self-evident.

To impress the idea of power on others, they must be made in some way to feel it.

It is only necessary to raise a bugbear before the English imagination in order to govern it at will. Whatever they hate or fear, they implicitly believe in, merely from the scope it gives to these passions.

Knowledge is pleasure as well as power.