When a thing ceases to be a subject of controversy, it ceases to be a subject of interest.

The greatest reverses of fortune are the most easily borne from a sort of dignity belonging to them.

It is only necessary to raise a bugbear before the English imagination in order to govern it at will. Whatever they hate or fear, they implicitly believe in, merely from the scope it gives to these passions.

It might be argued, that to be a knave is the gift of fortune, but to play the fool to advantage it is necessary to be a learned man.

We do not like our friends the worse because they sometimes give us an opportunity to rail at them heartily. Their faults reconcile us to their virtues.

No man would, I think, exchange his existence with any other man, however fortunate. We had as lief not be, as not be ourselves.

The best way to make ourselves agreeable to others is by seeming to think them so. If we appear fully sensible of their good qualities they will not complain of the want of them in us.