We laugh heartily to see a whole flock of sheep jump because one did so. Might not one imagine that superior beings do the same, and for exactly the same reason?

It is not enough that you can form nay, and follow, the most excellent rules for conducting yourself in the world. You must also know when to deviate from them, and where lies the exception.

Those men who are commended by everybody must be very extraordinary men; or, which is more probable, very inconsiderable men.

Whatever natural right men may have to freedom and independency, it is manifest that some men have a natural ascendency over others.

As charity covers a multitude of sins before God, so does politeness before men.

Some characters are like some bodies in chemistry; very good, perhaps, in themselves, yet fly off and refuse the least conjunction with each other.

A lively and agreeable man has not only the merit of liveliness and agreeableness himself, but that also of awakening them in others.