"I do not know, sir, that the fellow is an infidel; but if he be an infidel, he is an infidel as a dog is an infidel; that is to say, he has never thought upon the subject."

"A very unclubable man."

"This was a good dinner enough, to be sure, but it was not a dinner to ask a man to."

"I look upon it, that he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind anything else."

"Sir, your levellers wish to level down as far as themselves; but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves."

"Sir, I think all Christians, whether Papists or Protestants, agree in the essential articles, and that their differences are trivial, and rather political than religious."

"I am glad that he thanks God for anything."

"Sir, he [Bolingbroke] was a scoundrel and a coward: a scoundrel for charging a blunderbuss against religion and morality; a coward, because he had not resolution to fire it off himself, but left half a crown to a beggarly Scotchman to draw the trigger at his death."

"Wretched un-idea'd girls."

"Gloomy calm of idle vacancy."

"The atrocious crime of being a young man, which the honourable gentleman has with such spirit and decency charged upon me, I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny; but content myself with wishing that I may be one of those whose follies may cease with their youth, and not of that number who are ignorant in spite of experience."

"A fellow that makes no figure in company, and has a mind as narrow as the neck of a vinegar-cruet."

"The trappings of a monarchy would set up an ordinary commonwealth."

"To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example."

"Words are men's daughters, but God's sons are things."

"Trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay."

"How small of all that human hearts endure, That part which laws or kings can cause or cure! Still to ourselves in every place consigned, Our own felicity we make or find. With secret course, which no loud storms annoy, Glides the smooth current of domestic joy."

"A Poet, Naturalist, and Historian, Who left scarcely any style of writing untouched, And touched nothing that he did not adorn."

"Philips, whose touch harmonious could remove The pangs of guilty power and hapless love! Rest here, distress'd by poverty no more; Here find that calm thou gav'st so oft before; Sleep undisturb'd within this peaceful shrine, Till angels wake thee with a note like thine!"

"God bless you, my dear!"

"I will be conquered; I will not capitulate."

"Sir, I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a new acquaintance."

"Sir, I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding."

"Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue that it is always respected, even when it is associated with vice."

"Milton, Madam, was a genius that could cut a Colossus from a rock; but could not carve heads upon cherry-stones."

"It is as bad as bad can be: it is ill-fed, ill-killed, ill-kept, and ill-drest."

"It might as well be said, "Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat.""

"As I know more of mankind, I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man, upon easier terms than I was formerly."

"It is strange that there should be so little reading in the world, and so much writing. People in general do not willingly read, if they can have any thing else to amuse them."

"I never have sought the world; the world was not to seek me."

"Sir, there is no settling the point of precedency between a louse and a flea."

"A man might write such stuff for ever, if he would abandon his mind to it."

"There is a wicked inclination in most people to suppose an old man decayed in his intellects. If a young or middle-aged man, when leaving a company, does not remember where he laid his hat, it is nothing; but if the same inattention is discovered in an old man, people will shrug up their shoulders, and say, "His memory is going.""

"A man may be so much of every thing, that he is nothing of any thing."

"Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult."

"To let friendship die away by negligence and silence, is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of this weary pilgrimage."

"Always, Sir, set a high value on spontaneous kindness. He whose inclination prompts him to cultivate your friendship of his own accord, will love you more than one whom you have been at pains to attach to you."

"I have two very cogent reasons for not printing any list of subscribers; — one, that I have lost all the names, — the other, that I have spent all the money."

"A jest breaks no bones."

"My friend was of opinion that when a man of rank appeared in that character [as an author], he deserved to have his merit handsomely allowed."

"Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world."

"Mrs. Montagu has dropt me. Now, Sir, there are people whom one should like very well to drop, but would not wish to be dropped by."

"The applause of a single human being is of great consequence."

"No man was more foolish when he had not a pen in his hand, or more wise when he had."

"Greek, sir, is like lace; every man gets as much of it as he can."

"A Frenchman must be always talking, whether he knows anything of the matter or not; an Englishman is content to say nothing, when he has nothing to say."