I am persuaded that foolish writers and foolish readers are created for each other; and that fortune provides readers as she does mates for ugly women.

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.

Who has begun has half done. Have the courage to be wise. Begin!

Nothing has shown more fully the prodigious ignorance of human ideas and their littleness, than the discovery of [Sir William] Herschell, that what used to be called the Milky Way is a portion of perhaps an infinite multitude of worlds!

Poetry is a beautiful way of spoiling prose, and the laborious art of exchanging plain sense for harmony.

Oh that I were seated as high as my ambition, I'd place my naked foot on the necks of monarchs.

The way to ensure summer in England is to have it framed and glazed in a comfortable room.