He shines in the second rank, who is eclipsed in the first.

He was my equal in beauty, a paragon of grace and charm, sparkling with wit, and burning with love. I adored him to distraction, to the point of idolatry: I loved him as one can never love twice.

In this country [England] it is good to kill an admiral from time to time, to encourage the others. The reference is to Admiral John Byng, who was executed in 1757 for failing to prevent the French from taking Minorca.

The greatest consolation in life is to say what one thinks.

Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.

The necessity of saying something, the embarrassment produced by the consciousness of having nothing to say, and the desire to exhibit ability, are three things sufficient to render even a great man ridiculous.

Doubt is uncomfortable, certainty is ridiculous.