The being without an opinion is so painful to human nature that most people will leap to a hasty opinion rather than undergo it.

Life is a compromise of what your ego wants to do, what experience tells you to do, and what your nerves let you do.

A family on the throne is an interesting idea. It brings down the pride of sovereignty to the level of petty life.

The apparent rulers of the English nation are like the most imposing personages of the a splendid procession; it is by them that the mob are influenced; it is they who the inspectors cheer. The real rulers are secreted in second hand carriages; no one cares for them or asks about them, but they are obeyed implicitly and unconsciously by reason of the splendour of those who eclipsed and preceded them.

The great pleasure of life is doing for pleasure things I do not like to do.

The greatest mistake is trying to be more agreeable than you can be.

When great questions end, little parties begin.