You deny that man is really so prejudiced as I suppose him; talk to him then of some foreign country, ask him what religion he is of.

There is scarce any passion so heartily decried by moralists and satirists, as AMBITION; and yet, methinks, ambition is not a vice but in a vicious mind: in a virtuous mind it is a virtue, and will be found to take its color from the character in which it is mixed. Ambition is a desire of superiority; and a man may become superior, either by making others less or himself greater.

How happy is it for us, that the admiration of others should depend so much more on their ignorance than our perfection!

The greatest slave in a kingdom is generally the king of it.

We are oftener deceived by being told some truth than no truth.

We are not slow at discovering the selfishness of others; for this plain reason--because it clashes with our own.

Taste may be compared to that exquisite sense of the bee, which instantly discovers and extracts the quintessence of every flower, and disregards all the rest of it.