I have a much greater ambition to be the best racket player than the best prose writer.

The public have neither shame or gratitude.

To be wiser than other men is to be honester than they; and strength of mind is only courage to see and speak the truth.

Comedy naturally wears itself out - destroys the very food on which it lives; and by constantly and successfully exposing the follies and weaknesses of mankind to ridicule, in the end leaves itself nothing worth laughing at.

It might be argued, that to be a knave is the gift of fortune, but to play the fool to advantage it is necessary to be a learned man.

The world loves to be amused by hollow professions, to be deceived by flattering appearances, to live in a state of hallucination; and can forgive everything but the plain, downright, simple, honest truth.

Prejudice is never easy unless it can pass itself off for reason.