Poverty is the test of civility and the touchstone of friendship.

When you find out a man's ruling passion, beware of crossing him in it.

A man's reputation is not in his own keeping, but lies at the mercy of the profligacy of others. Calumny requires no proof.

To impress the idea of power on others, they must be made in some way to feel it.

There is not a more mean, stupid, dastardly, pitiful, selfish, spiteful, envious, ungrateful animal than the Public. It is the greatest of cowards, for it is afraid of itself.

A life of action and danger moderates the dread of death.

Language, if it throws a veil over our ideas, adds a softness and refinement to them, like that which the atmosphere gives to naked objects.