Dissimulation, even the most innocent in its nature, is ever productive of embarrassment; whether the design is evil or not artifice is always dangerous and almost inevitably disgraceful.

The noblest deeds are well enough set forth in simple language; emphasis spoils them.

Born merely for the purpose of digestion.

The Great slight the men of wit, who have nothing but wit; the men of wit despise the Great, who have nothing but greatness; the good man pities them both, if with greatness or wit they have not virtue.

Manners carry the world for the moment, character for all time.

To give awkwardly is churlishness. The most difficult part is to give, then why not add a smile?

There are certain things in which mediocrity is intolerable: poetry, music, painting, public eloquence. What torture it is to hear a frigid speech being pompously declaimed, or second-rate verse spoken with all a bad poet's bombast!