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.

It is very unfair in any writer to employ ignorance and malice together, because it gives his answerer double work.

A lie is an excuse guarded

It is computed that eleven thousand persons have at several times suffered death rather than submit to break their eggs at the smaller end.

When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.

Ay, do despise me, I'm the prouder for it; I like to be despised.

Vain men delight in telling what Honours have been done them, what great Company they have kept, and the like; by which they plainly confess, that these Honours were more than their Due, and such as their Friends would not believe if they had not been told: Whereas a Man truly proud, thinks the greatest Honours below his Merit, and consequently scorns to boast. I therefore deliver it as a Maxim that whoever desires the Character of a proud Man, ought to conceal his Vanity.