By poetry we mean the art of employing of words in such a manner as to produce an illusion on the imagination; the art of doing by means of words, what the painter does by means of colors.

Perhaps no person can be a poet, or can even enjoy poetry, without a certain unsoundness of mind.

They [the Nabobs] raised the price of everything in their neighbourhood, from fresh eggs to rotten boroughs.

When some traveller from New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St Paul's.

There were gentlemen and there were seamen in the navy of Charles the Second. But the seamen were not gentlemen: and the gentlemen were not seamen.

Few of the many wise apothegms, which have been uttered from the time of the seven sages of Greece to that of poor Richard, have prevented a single foolish action.

And lastly, let us provide in our Constitution for its revision at stated periods.

The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

Few of the many wise apothegms which have been uttered have prevented a single foolish action.

Charles V said that a man who knew four languages was worth four men; and Alexander the Great so valued learning, that he used to say he was more indebted to Aristotle for giving him knowledge that, than his father Philip for giving him life.

Thank you, madam, the agony is abated.'aged 4, having hot coffee spilt over his legs.

Thank you, madam, the agony is abated.

And how can man die better than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods?

More sinners are cursed at not because we despise their sins but because we envy their success at sinning.

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

It is possible to be below flattery as well as above it.

Nothing is so useless as a general maxim.

I have seen the hippopotamus, both asleep and awake; and I can assure you that, awake or asleep, he is the ugliest of the works of God.

The object of oratory alone is not truth, but persuasion.