Politeness is fictitious benevolence.

His scorn of the great is repeated too often to be real; no man thinks much of that which he despises.

Every state of society is as luxurious as it can be. Men always take the best they can get.

Whatever advantage we snatch beyond a certain portion allotted us by at nature, is like money spent before it is due, which, at the time of regular payment, will be missed and regretted.

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.

Allegories drawn to great length will always break.

Some read for style, and some for argument: one has little care about the sentiment, he observes only how it is expressed; another regards not the conclusion, but is diligent to mark how it is inferred; they read for other purposes than the attainment of practical knowledge; and are no more likely to grow wise by an examination of a treatise of moral prudence, than an architect to inflame his devotion by considering attentively the proportions of a temple.