There's no praise to beat the sort you can put in your pocket.

Esteem must be founded on some sort of preference. Bestow it on everybody and it ceases to have any meaning at all.

There's nothing people can't contrive to praise or condemn and find justification for doing so, according to their age and their inclinations.

It is a folly second to none, To try to improve the world.

To find oneself jilted is a blow to one's pride. One must do one's best to forget it and if one doesn't succeed, at least one must pretend to.

The most effective way of attacking vice is to expose it to public ridicule. People can put up with rebukes but they cannot bear being laughed at: they are prepared to be wicked but they dislike appearing ridiculous.

Don't appear so scholarly, pray. Humanize your talk, and speak to be understood. Do you think a Greek name gives more weight to your reasons?

Everything that's prose isn't verse and everything that isn't verse is prose. Now you see what it is to be a scholar!

The public scandal is what constitutes the offence: sins sinned in secret are no sins at all.

Folk whose own behavior is most ridiculous are always to the fore in slandering others.