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.

Deference often shrinks and withers as much upon the approach of intimacy as the sensitive plant does upon the touch of one's finger.

Every good poet includes a critic, but the reverse is not true.

A liar begins with making falsehood appear like truth, and ends with making truth itself appear like falsehood.

I know not whether increasing years do not cause us to esteem fewer people and to bear with more.

We may daily discover crowds acquire sufficient wealth to buy gentility, but very few that possess the virtues which ennoble human nature, and (in the best sense of the word) constitute a gentleman.

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