The mischief of flattery is, not that it persuades any man that he is what he is not, but that it suppresses the influence of honest ambition, by raising an opinion that honour may be gained without the toil of merit.

Sir, it is wrong to stir up law-suits; but when once it is certain that a law-suit is to go on, there is nothing wrong in a lawyer's endeavouring that he shall have the benefit, rather than another.

He that writes may be considered as a kind of general challenger, whom every one has a right to attack; since he quits the common rank of life, steps forward beyond the lists, and offers his merit to the public judgement. To commence author is to claim praise, and no man can justly aspire to honour, but at the hazard of disgrace.

A Scotchman must be a very sturdy moralist who does not love Scotland better than truth.

I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.

It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives.

My diseases are an asthma and a dropsy and, what is less curable, seventy-five.