Two people cannot be alone together for upwards of half an hour without one emerging as the superior.

There are people who indulge themselves in a sort of lying, which they reckon innocent, and which in one sense is so; for it hurtsnobody but themselves. This sort of lying is the spurious offspring of vanity, begotten upon folly.

The French manner of hunting is gentlemanlike; ours is only for bumpkins and bodies. The poor beasts here are pursued and run downby much greater beasts than themselves; and the true British fox-hunter is most undoubtedly a species appropriated and peculiar to this country, which no other part of the globe produces.

The mere brute pleasure of reading - the sort of pleasure a cow must have in grazing.

Half the business is done, when one has gained the heart and the affections of those with whom one is to transact it.

As fathers commonly go, it is seldom a misfortune to be fatherless; and considering the general run of sons, as seldom a misfortune to be childless.

Most people enjoy the inferiority of their best friends.