… “Whether vanity is the cause of our becoming rhymesters or not,” answered Harley, “it is a pretty certain effect of it. …

Bootilicious body language for saying goodbye

The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite.[…]Can those harmless but refined fellow-diners be the selfish cads whose gluttony and personal appearance so raised your contemptuous wrath on your arrival?

These, and many more that might be adduced, are instances of the obscure though not absolutely impervious medium through which the present age views ancient history; and at the head of these illusions, is the great illusion of all, on wealth and poverty. Wealth was to be discreditable, unmanly, vituperate, because it was found greatly to indispose men to be active thieves. […] This is the sorry explanation, of the ancient theory of heroic poverty.