Lord Bath used to say of women, who are apt to say that they will follow their own judgment, that they could not follow a worse guide.

Without grace no book can live, and with it the poorest may have its life prolonged.

When people will not weed their own minds, they are apt to be overrun by nettles.

René of Anjou [(1409-80)] painted a picture of his mistress's corpse as he found it eaten by worms on having it [her tomb] openedon his return from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. This [is] another instance of the strange mixture of religion and gallantry in those ages.

The prosecution of [Warren] Hastings, though he should escape at last, must have good effect. It will alarm the servants of the Company in India, that they may not always plunder with impunity, but that there may be a retrospect; and it will show them that even bribes of diamonds to the Crown may not secure them from prosecution.

That strange premature genius Chatterton has couched in one line the quintessence of what Voltaire has said in many pages: "Reason, a thorn in Revelation's side.

It was said of old Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, that she never puts dots over her I s, to save ink.