Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyts New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Satire
Why should we fear; and what? The laws? They all are armed in virtues cause; And aiming at the self-same end, Satire is always virtues friend. ChurchillGhost. Bk. III. L. 943.
Unless a love of virtue light the flame, Satire is, more than those he brands, to blame; He hides behind a magisterial air His own offences, and strips others bare. CowperCharity. L. 490.
Satire should, like a polished razor keen, Wound with a touch thats scarcely felt or seen. Thine is an oyster knife, that hacks and hews; The rage but not the talent to abuse. Lady Mary Wortley MontagueTo the Imitator of the First Satire of Horace. (Pope.)
I wear my Pen as others do their Sword. To each affronting sot I meet, the word Is Satisfaction: straight to thrusts I go, And pointed satire runs him through and through. John OldhamSatire upon a Printer. L. 36.
Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer; Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike; Alike reservd to blame, or to commend, A timrous foe, and a suspicious friend. PopePrologue to Satires. L. 201.
There are, to whom my satire seems too bold; Scarce to wise Peter complaisant enough, And something said of Chartres much too rough. PopeSecond Book of Horace. Satire I. L. 2.
La satire ment sur les gens de lettres pendant leur vie, et léloge ment après leur mort. Satire lies about literary men while they live and eulogy lies about them when they die. VoltaireLettre à Bordes. Jan. 10, 1769.