The world judge of men by their ability in their profession, and we judge of ourselves by the same test: for it is on that on which our success in life depends.

The pleasure of hating, like a poisonous mineral, eats into the heart of religion, and turns it to ranking spleen and bigotry; it makes patriotism an excuse for carrying fire, pestilence, and famine into other lands: it leaves to virtue nothing but the spirit of censoriousness.

We often choose a friend as we do a mistress - for no particular excellence in themselves, but merely from some circumstance that flatters our self-love.

Religion either makes men wise and virtuous, or it makes them set up false pretenses to both.

We are governed by sympathy; and the extent of our sympathy is determined by that of our sensibility

Greatness is great power, producing great effects. It is not enough that a man has great power in himself, he must shew it to all the world in a way that cannot be hid or gainsaid.

I have a much greater ambition to be the best racket player than the best prose writer.