Nothing sharpens the arrow of sarcasm so keenly as the courtesy that polishes it; no reproach is like that we clothe with a smile and present with a bow.

It must be owned, that the Graces do not seem to be natives of Great Britain; and I doubt, the best of us here have more of rough than polished diamond.

Human nature is the same everywhere; the modes only are different.

I look upon indolence as a sort of suicide.

Women who are either indisputably beautiful, or indisputably ugly, are best flattered upon the score of their understandings.

Religion is by no means a proper subject of conversation in mixed company; it should only be treated among a very few people of learning, for mutual instruction. It is too awful and respectable a subject to become a familiar one.

Absolute power can only be supported by error, ignorance and prejudice.