"And for the authentical truth of either person or actions, who will expect it in a poem, whose subject is not truth, but things like truth? Poor envious souls they are that cavil at truth's want in these natural fictions; material instruction, elegant and sententious excitation to virtue, and deflection from her contrary, being the soul, limbs, and limits of an authentical tragedy."

“Poetry, unlike oratory, should not aim at clarity... but be dense with meaning, 'something to be chewed and digested'...”

“For your behaviour, let it be free and negligent, not clogged with ceremony or observance; give no man honour, but upon equal terms; for look how much thou giv'st any man above that, so much thou tak'st from thyself.”

“Only a few industrious Scots perhaps, who indeed are dispersed over the face of the whole earth. But as for them, there are no greater friends to Englishmen and England, when they are out on 't, in the world, than they are. And for my own part, I would a hundred thousand of them were there ; for we are all one countrymen now, ye know, and we should find ten times more comfort of them there than we do here.”

“I will neither yield to the song of the siren nor the voice of the hyena, the tears of the crocodile nor the howling of the wolf.”

“None ever loved but at first sight they loved.”

“Promise is most given when the least is said.”