Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be. – William Hazlitt, The English Comic Writers, 1819

Men prefer to believe that they are degenerated angels, rather than elevated apes. – William Winwood Reade

The doctors tell us of a physical disease called fatty degeneration of the heart… there is a moral malady—fatty degeneration of the soul; sooner or later it attacks every man, however noble his career, who puts self forward in his aims; who values fame because a personal possession. – Frank Lee Benedict, The Price She Paid, 1882