"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."

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

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

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

"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."

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

"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."

"A jest breaks no bones."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

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

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

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

"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."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"God bless you, my dear!"

"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!"

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

"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."

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

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

"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."

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

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

"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."

"Gloomy calm of idle vacancy."

"Wretched un-idea'd girls."

"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."

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

"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."

"By Numbers here from Shame or Censure free, All Crimes are safe, but hated Poverty. This, only this, the rigid Law persues, This, only this, provokes the snarling Muse."

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

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

"A very unclubable man."

"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."