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

The eye of the mind, like that of the body, can only extend its view to new objects, by losing sight of those which are now before it.

Sir, I do not call a gamester a dishonest man; but I call him an unsociable man, an unprofitable man. Gaming is a mode of transferring property without producing any intermediate good.

What I gained by being in France was learning to be better satisfied with my own country.

Oratory is the power of beating down your adversary's arguments and putting better in their place.

A transition from an author's book to his conversation is too often like an entrance into a large city, after a distant prospect. Remotely, we see nothing but spires of temples and turrets of palaces, and imagine it the residence of splendour, grandeur, and magnificence; but when we have passed the gates, we find it perplexed with narrow passages, disgraced with despicable cottages, embarrassed with obstructions, and clouded with smoke.

By forbearing to do what may innocently be done, we may add hourly new vigor to resolution.