There would not be any absolute necessity for reserve if the world were honest; yet even then it would prove expedient. For, in order to attain any degree of deference, it seems necessary that people should imagine you have more accomplishments than you discover.

Taste and good-nature are universally connected.

Anger is a great force. If you control it, it can be transmuted into a power which can move the whole world.

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.

Virtues, like essences, lose their fragrance when exposed. They are sensitive plants, which will not bear too familiar approaches.

I am thankful that my name in obnoxious to no pun.

There is a certain flimsiness of poetry which seems expedient in a song.