Loud laughter is the mirth of the mob, who are only pleased with silly things; for true Wit or good Sense never excited a laugh since the creation of the world. A man of parts and fashion is therefore often seen to smile, but never heard to laugh.

The power of applying attention, steady and undissipated, to a single object, is the sure mark of superior genius.

To me it appears strange that the men against whom I should be enabled to bring an action for laying a little dirt at my door, may with impunity drive by it half-a-dozen calves, with their tails lopped close to their bodies and their hinder parts covered with blood.

Sex: the pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable.

He adorned whatever subject he either spoke or wrote upon, by the most splendid eloquence.

Letters should be easy and natural, and convey to the persons to whom we send them just what we should say to the persons if we were with them.

A rake is a composition of all the lowest, most ignoble, degrading, and shameful vices; they all conspire to disgrace his character, and to ruin his fortune; while wine and the pox content which shall soonest and most effectually destroy his constitution.