The most powerful men are not public men: a public man is responsible, and a responsible man is a slave. It is private life that governs the world.

The right honourable gentleman caught the Whigs bathing, and walked away with their clothes. He has left them in the full enjoyment of their liberal positions, and he is himself a strict conservative of their garments.

I have climbed to the top of the greasy pole!

Talk to a man about himself and he will listen for hours.

We are taught words, not ideas.

The art of conversation is to be prompt without being stubborn, to refute without argument, and to clothe great matters in a motley garb.

What art was to the ancient world, Science is to the modern; the distinctive faculty. In the minds of men, the useful has succeeded to the beautiful.