What vexes me most is, that my female friends, who could bear me very well a dozen years ago, have now forsaken me, although I am not so old in proportion to them as I formerly was: which I can prove by arithmetic, for then I was double their age, which now I am not. Letter to Alexander Pope. 7 Feb. 1736.

It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.

We of this age have discovered a shorter, and more prudent method to become scholars and wits, without the fatigue of reading or of thinking.

The affectation of some late authors to introduce and multiply cant words is the most ruinous corruption in any language.

The lack of belief is a defect that ought to be concealed when it cannot be overcome.

Daphne knows, with equal ease, How to vex and how to please; But the folly of her sex Makes her sole delight to vex.

A favor is half granted, when graciously refused.