Poor nations are hungry, and rich nations are proud; and pride and hunger will ever be at variance.

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.

The scholars of Ireland seem not to have the least conception of style, but run on in a flat phraseology, often mingled with barbarous terms.

A chuck under the chin is worth two kisses.

No man will take counsel, but every man will take money. Therefore, money is better than counsel.

Conscience signifies that knowledge which a man hath of his own thoughts and actions; and because, if a man judgeth fairly of his actions by comparing them with the law of God, his mind will approve or condemn him; this knowledge or conscience may be both an accuser and a judge.

My father had a small Estate in Nottinghamshire; I was the Third of five Sons.