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.

Man is a poetical animal, and delights in fiction.

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.

Let a man's talents or virtues be what they may, he will only feel satisfaction in his society as he is satisfied in himself.

Satirists gain the applause of others through fear, not through love.

We uniformly applaud what is right and condemn what is wrong, when it costs us nothing but the sentiment.

Society is a more level surface than we imagine. Wise men or absolute fools are hard to be met with, as there are few giants or dwarfs.