I'm as old as my tongue and a little older than my teeth.

Good manners is the art of making those people easy with whom we converse. Whoever makes the fewest people uneasy is the best bred in the room.

In all distresses of our friends We first consult our private ends; While Nature, kindly bent to ease us, Points out some circumstance to please us.

Love of flattery, in most men, proceeds from the mean opinion they have of themselves; in women, from the contrary.

Had Windham possessed discretion in debate, or Sheridan in conduct, they might have ruled their age.

Brutes find out where their talents lie; A bear will not attempt to fly, A foundered horse will oft debate Before he tries a five barred gate. A dog by instinct turns aside Who sees the ditch too deep and wide, But man we find the only creature Who, led by folly, combats nature; Who, when she loudly cries-Forbear! With obstinacy fixes there; And where the genius least inclines, Absurdly bends his whole designs.

There are few wild beasts more to be dreaded than a talking man having nothing to say.