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

I should as soon think of contradicting a bishop

The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.

A man is very apt to complain of the ingratitude of those who have risen far above him.

Critics ought never to be consulted, but while errors may yet be rectified or insipidity suppressed. But when the book has once been dismissed into the world, and can be no more retouched, I know not whether a very different conduct should not be prescribed, and whether firmness and spirit may not sometimes be of use to overpower arrogance and repel brutality.

Every man speaks and writes with intent to be understood; and it can seldom happen but he that understands himself, might convey his notions to another, if, content to be understood, he did not seek to be admired; but when once he begins to contrive how his sentiments may be received, not with most ease to his reader, but with most advantage to himself, he then transfers his consideration from words to sounds, from sentences to periods, and, as he grows more elegant, becomes less intelligible.

All power of fancy over reason is a degree of madness.