There are no persons more solicitous about the preservation of rank than those who have no rank at all. Observe the humors of a country christening, and you will find no court in Christendom so ceremonious as the quality of Brentford.

Flattery of the verbal kind is gross. In short, applause is of too coarse a nature to be swallowed in the gross, though the extract or tincture be ever so agreeable.

A wound in the friendship of young persons, as in the bark of young trees, may be so grown over as to leave no scar. The case is very different in regard to old persons and old timber. The reason of this may be accountable from the decline of the social passions, and the prevalence of spleen, suspicion, and rancor towards the latter part of life.

A large retinue upon a small income, like a large cascade upon a small stream, tends to discover its tenuity.

Nothing is certain in London but expense.

Amid the most mercenary ages it is but a secondary sort of admiration that is bestowed upon magnificence.

Trifles discover a character, more than actions of importance.