The Irish are hearty, the Scotch plausible, the French polite, the Germans good-natured, the Italians courtly, the Spaniards reserved and decorous - the English alone seem to exist in taking and giving offense.

The assumption of merit is easier, less embarrassing, and more effectual than the actual attainment of it.

The art of pleasing consists in being pleased.

An orator can hardly get beyond commonplaces: if he does he gets beyond his hearers.

Persons who undertake to pry into, or cleanse out all the filth of a common sewer, either cannot have very nice noses, or will soon lose them.

No really great man ever thought himself so.

Death puts an end to rivalship and competition. The dead can boast no advantage over us, nor can we triumph over them.