Long customs are not easily broken; he that attempts to change the course of his own life very often labors in vain; and how shall we do that for others, which we are seldom able to do for ourselves.

There are people whom one should like very well to drop, but would not wish to be dropped by.

You may translate books of science exactly. ... The beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which it was originally written.

A cow is a very good animal in the field; but we turn her out of a garden.

Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree. We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.

Sir, if you wish to have a just notion of the magnitude of this city, you must not be satisfied with seeing its great streets and squares, but must survey the innumerable little lanes and courts. It is not in the showy evolutions of buildings, but in the multiplicity of human habitations which are crowded together, that the wonderful immensity of London consists.

Sir, I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.