it is more to my personal happiness and advantage to indulge the love and admiration of excellence, than to cherish a secret envy of it.

Not to be miserable is all some people are capable of.

I never invite idiots to my house.

I always wish to find great virtues where there are great talents, and to love what I admire.

It is very unreasonable of people to expect one should be at home, because one is in the house. Of all privileges, that of invisibility is the most valuable.

The outrages of the powerful, the insolence of the rich, scorn of the proud, and malice of the uncharitable, all beating against the broken spirit of the unfortunate.

Few people know anything of the English history but what they learn from Shakespear; for our story is rather a tissue of personal adventures and catastrophes than a series of political events.