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

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.

Art teaches nothing, except the significance of life.

The principal rule of art is to please and to move. All the other rules were created to achieve this first one.

I grew up with art from the innocent age of ten - with art, but with no sense of identity.

One does not devote one's life in art to shock an audience.

The other great development has been in photography, but that too was influenced by Conceptual art.

My art became very public.

Riding a race bike is an art - a thing that you do because you feel something inside.

The idea is, if I can't heal from my art, then how can you heal?

But in the finished art of the song the use of words has no connection with the use of words in poetry.

One does not need buildings, money, power, or status to practice the Art of Peace. Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place to train.

I don't believe in art. I believe in artists.

Art cannot be modern. Art is primordially eternal.

Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.