He that can enjoy the intimacy of the great, and on no occasion disgust them by familiarity, or disgrace himself by servility, proves that he is as perfect a gentleman by nature as his companions are by rank.

It is seldom that statesmen have the option of choosing between a good and an evil.

Butler compared the tongues of these eternal talkers to race-horses, which go the faster the less weight they carry.

It is always easy to shut a book, but not quite so easy to get rid of a lettered coxcomb.

Sleep, the type of death, is also, like that which it typifies, restricted to the earth. It flies from hell and is excluded from heaven.

It is far better to borrow experience than to buy it.

Five thousand years have added no improvement to the hive of the bee, nor to the house of the beaver; but look at the habitations and the achievements of men!