Plot, rules, nor even poetry, are not half so great beauties in tragedy or comedy as a just imitation of nature, of character, of the passions and their operations in diversified situations.

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.

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.

Poetry is a beautiful way of spoiling prose, and the laborious art of exchanging plain sense for harmony.

Life is a comedy for those who think... and a tragedy for those who feel.

How well Shakespeare knew how to improve and exalt little circumstances, when he borrowed them from circumstantial or vulgar historians.

It was easier to conquer it than to know what to do with it.

Life is a tragedy for those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.

Oh that I were seated as high as my ambition, I'd place my naked foot on the necks of monarchs.

Virtue knows to a farthing what it has lost by not having been vice.

We often repent of our first thoughts, and scarce ever of our second.

Plot, rules, nor even poetry, are not half so great beauties in tragedy or comedy as a just imitation of nature, of character, of the passions and their operations in diversified situations.

By deafness one gains in one respect more than one loses; one misses more nonsense than sense.

I do not admire politicians; but when they are excellent in their way, one cannot help allowing them their due.

I avoid talking before the youth of the age as I would dancing before them: for if one's tongue don't move in the steps of the day, and thinks to please by its old graces, it is only an object of ridicule.

It was said of old Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, that she never puts dots over her I s, to save ink.

The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well.

Justice is rather the activity of truth, than a virtue in itself. Truth tells us what is due to others, and justice renders that due. Injustice is acting a lie.

This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.

The wisest prophets make sure of the event first.

Men are sent into the world with bills of credit, and seldom draw to their full extent.

Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he isn't. A sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is.

The Methodists love your big sinners, as proper subjects to work upon.

I never found even in my juvenile hours that it was necessary to go a thousand miles in search of themes for moralizing.

The world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those who feel.

Nine-tenths of the people were created so you would want to be with the other tenth.

The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.

When people will not weed their own minds they are apt to be overrun by nettles.

The world is a tragedy to those who feel but a comedy to those who think.

The curse of modern times is that almost everything does create controversy.

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.

Old friends are the great blessing of one's later years . . . They have a memory of the same events and have the same mode of thinking.

We often repent of our first thoughts, and scarce ever of our second.

Perhaps those, who, trembling most, maintain a dignity in their fate, are the bravest: resolution on reflection is real courage.

Serendipity... You will understand it better by the derivation than by the definition. I once read a silly fairy tale, called 'The Three Princes of Serendip': as their Highnesses traveled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of.

In this watering-place I acted an heroic character, badly studied; and being a novice on such a stage, I forgot my part before a pair of lovely blue eyes.

I do like to embed a fictional character firmly in an occupation.

But even with a character like Cary who is relatively outlandish, at the end of the movie he's in a place where I wouldn't have expected him to be - taking on the responsibility of a woman who is pregnant and who used to be his best friend's wife.

Always, your work is the same: You have to tell a story, you have to make a character. It doesn't matter if there are thousands of dollars, millions behind it, or if there is nothing.

Each of us is meant to have a character all our own, to be what no other can exactly be, and do what no other can exactly do.

I liked Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, and that is the kind of character that I would like to have played. That would have been more in tune with who I really was.

It's the difficulty we had with Mr. Bean, actually, when it went from TV to film. You certainly discover that you need to explain more about a character.

In a lot of ways, the make-up was the character.

The more we study the Indian's character the more we appreciate the marked distinction between the civilized being and the real savage.

So many people have said that to me, that what they really like about Alex is what she brings out in Marissa, and what this situation brings out in her, a hint of happiness and another side to her character.

I've been on the show for six years and I don't even know what her history is. I sort of make things up in my mind, but I think it's hard for an audience to follow and invest in a character when they don't have the details.

It is not true that drink changes a man's character. It may reveal it more clearly.

Because I killed a guy in real life, and because my character kills a guy onstage, they said I could never do anything this great again. I resented that.