This man [Chesterfield], I thought, had been a Lord among wits; but I find he is only a wit among Lords.

Try and forget our cares and sickness, and contribute, as we can to the happiness of each other.

To mean understandings, it is sufficient honour to be numbered amongst the lowest labourers of learning; but different abilities must find different tasks. To hew stone, would have been unworthy of Palladio; and to have rambled in search of shells and flowers, had but ill suited with the capacity of Newton.

Abuse is often of service. There is nothing so dangerous to an author as silence.

Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermissions. What we have missed long enough to want it, we value more when it is regained; but that which has been lost till it is forgotten will be found at last with little gladness, and with still less if a substitute has supplied the place.

No, Sir, you will have much more influence by giving or lending money where it is wanted, than by hospitality.

Rash oaths, whether kept or broken, frequently produce guilt.