An orator is the worse person to tell a plain fact.

Now flattery can never do good; twice cursed in the giving and the receiving, it ought to be.

Habit is, to weak minds, a species of moral predestination, from which they have no power to escape.

Artificial manners vanish the moment the natural passions are touched.

[On collectors of quotations:] How far our literature may in future suffer from these blighting swarms, will best be conceived by a glance at what they have already withered and blasted of the favourite productions of our most popular poets.

Beauty is a great gift of heaven; not for the purpose of female vanity, but a great gift for one who loves, and wishes to be beloved.

a straight line is the shortest possible line between any two points - an axiom equally true in morals as in mathematics.