Perhaps those, who, trembling most, maintain a dignity in their fate, are the bravest: resolution on reflection is real courage.
A man of sense, though born without wit, often lives to have wit. His memory treasures up ideas and reflections; he compares themwith new occurrences, and strikes out new lights from the collision. The consequence is sometimes bons mots, and sometimes apothegms.
The best sun we have is made of Newcastle coal, and I am determined never to reckon upon any other.
Shakespeare, with an improved education and in a more enlightened age, might easily have attained the purity and correction of Racine; but nothing leads one to suppose that Racine in a barbarous age would have attained the grandeur, force and nature of Shakespeare.
Our supreme governors, the mob.
Fashion is fortunately no law but to its devotees.
Fashion is always silly, for, before it can spread far, it must be calculated for silly people; as examples of sense, wit, or ingenuity could be imitated only by a few.
Defaced ruins of architecture and statuary, like the wrinkles of decrepitude of a once beautiful woman, only make one regret that one did not see them when they were enchanting.
A careless song, with a little nonsense in it now and then, does not mis-become a monarch.
Mystery is the wisdom of blockheads.
It was said of old Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, that she never puts dots over her I s, to save ink.
Men are often capable of greater things than they perform – They are sent into the world with bills of credit, and seldom draw to their full extent.
I never found even in my juvenile hours that it was necessary to go a thousand miles in search of themes for moralizing.
How well Shakespeare knew how to improve and exalt little circumstances, when he borrowed them from circumstantial or vulgar historians.
Alexander at the head of the world never tasted the true pleasure that boys of his own age have enjoyed at the head of a school.
I do not admire politicians; but when they are excellent in their way, one cannot help allowing them their due.
By deafness one gains in one respect more than one loses; one misses more nonsense than sense.
A tragedy can never suffer by delay: a comedy may, because the allusions or the manners represented in it maybe temporary.
If a passion for freedom is not in vogue, patriots may sound the alarm till they are weary. The Act of Habeas Corpus, by which prisoners may insist on being brought to trial within a limited time, is the corner stone of our liberty.
When Shakespeare copied chroniclers verbatim, it was because he knew they were good enough for his audiences. In a more polished age he who could so move our passions, could surely have performed the easier task of satisfying our taste.