Fine society, which, as Madame de Stael well says, depraves the frivolous mind and braces the strong one, completed the ruin of all that was manly in Cesarini's intellect.
"Ernest Maltravers, Complete"
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
"The education of life," says De Stael, "perfects the thinking mind, but depraves the frivolous."
"Falkland, Complete"
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
For, as Aristotle says rightly, the moving of laughter is a fault in comedy, a kind of turpitude that depraves some part of a man's nature without a disease.
"The Function Of The Poet And Other Essays"
James Russell Lowell