p. 3 The most forceful lines of a serious moral statement are usually less powerful than those of satire; and nothing will reform most men better than the depiction of their faults. It is a vigorous blow to vices to expose them to public laughter. Criticism is taken lightly, but men will not tolerate satire. They are quite willing to be mean, but they never like to be ridiculed.
p. 5 I admit that there have been times when comedy became corrupt. And what do men not corrupt every day? There is nothing so innocent that men cannot turn it to crime; nothing so good in itself that it cannot be put to bad uses.
p. 24 There are pretenders to devotion as well as to courage; and as those who are truly brave in battle are not they who make the most noise, so those who are truly devout, who ought to be imitated, are not those who make the most outward show.
p. 24 How strangely are most men made! They are never at one with nature. Reason's bounds are too small for them. They exceed its limits in every way, and often ruin the noblest of things in trying to go too far.
p. 71 DAMIS: I'll knock his brains out. CLEANTE: You talk just like a young man. If you please, moderate these outbursts of passion. We live under a reign and in an age in which violence does only harm to one's cause.
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