To govern mankind, one must not overrate them.

Speak the language of the company you are in; speak it purely, and unlarded with any other.

It is to be presumed, that a man of common sense, who does not desire to please, desires nothing at all; since he must know that he cannot obtain anything without it.

Unlike my subject will I frame my song, It shall be witty and it shan't be long.

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

Learn to shrink yourself to the size of the company you are in. Take their tone, whatever it may be, and excell in it if you can;but never pretend to give the tone. A free conversation will no more bear a dictator than a free government will.

He makes people pleased with him by making them first pleased with themselves.