A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but, one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.

Small debts are like small shot; they are rattling on every side, and can scarcely be escaped without a wound: great debts are like cannon; of loud noise, but little danger.

Dogs have not the power of comparing. A dog will take a small piece of meat as readily as a large, when both are before him.

Excise: A hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid.

Politeness is one of those advantages which we never estimate rightly but by the inconvenience of its loss.

The round of a passionate man's life is in contracting debts in his passion, which his virtue obliges him to pay. He spends his time in outrage and acknowledgment, injury and reparation.

Silence propagates itself, and the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it is to find anything to say.