We should not write so that it is possible for the reader to understand us, but so that it is impossible for him to misunderstand us.
When we cannot hope to win, it is an advantage to yield.
It is easier to do many things than to do one thing continuously for a long time.
A laugh costs too much when bought at the expense of virtue.
The pretended admission of a fault on our part creates an excellent impression.
It seldom happens that a premature shoot of genius ever arrives at maturity.
That which offends the ear will not easily gain admission to the mind.
A liar must have a good memory. -Mendacem oportet esse memorem.
Lately we have had many losses.
The prosperous can not easily form a right idea of misery.
Virtue, though she gets her beginning from nature, yet receives her finishing touches from learning.
Ambition is a vice, but it may be the father of virtue.
Men of quality are in the wrong to undervalue, as they often do, the practise of a fair and quick hand in writing; for it is no immaterial accomplishment.
Verse satire indeed is entirely our own.
For comic writers charge Socrates with making the worse appear the better reason.
One thing, however, I must premise, that without the assistance of natural capacity, rules and precepts are of no efficacy.
The obscurity of a writer is generally in proportion to his incapacity.
That which prematurely arrives at perfection soon perishes.
Usage is the best language teacher.
Nothing can be pleasing which is not also becoming.
While we are examining into everything we sometimes find truth where we least expected it.