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.

Very ugly or very beautiful women should be flattered on their understanding, and mediocre ones on their beauty.

Love has been not unaptly compared to the small-pox, which most people have sooner or later.

The great, the rich, the powerful, too often bestow their favours upon their inferiors in the manner they bestow their scraps upontheir dogs, so as neither to oblige man nor dogs. It is no wonder if favours, benefits, and even charities thus bestowed ungraciously, should be as coldly and faintly acknowledged.

Those whom you can make like themselves better will, I promise you, like you very well.

It seems to me that physical sickness softens, just as moral sickness hardens, the heart.

Buy good books, and read them; the best books are the commonest, and the last editions are always the best, if the editors are not blockheads.