"It is a great advantage for any man to be able to talk or hear, neither ignorantly nor absurdly, upon any subject; for I have known people, who have not said one word, hear ignorantly and absurdly; it has appeared by their inattentive and unmeaning faces."

"Every woman is infallibly to be gained by every sort of flattery, and every man by one sort or other."

"Let dull critics feed upon the carcasses of plays; give me the taste and the dressing."

"It is commonly said, and more particularly by Lord Shaftesbury, that ridicule is the best test of truth."

"You had better refuse a favor gracefully, than to grant it clumsily. Manner is all, in everything: it is by manner only that you can please, and consequently rise. All your Greek will never advance you from secretary to envoy, or from envoy to ambassador; but your address, your manner, your air, if good, very probably may."

"The manner is often as important as the matter, sometimes more so."

"Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote."

"Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give luster, and many more people see than weigh."

"I wish to God that you had as much pleasure in following my advice, as I have in giving it to you."

"Dispatch is the soul of business."

"Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day."

"We must not draw general conclusions from certain particular principles, though, in the main, true ones. We must not suppose that, because a man is a rational animal, he will therefore always act rationally; or, because he has such or such a predominant passion, that he will act invariably and consequentially in the pursuit of it. No. We are complicated machines: and though we have one main-spring, that gives motion to the whole, we have an infinity of little wheels, which, in their turns, retard, precipitate, and sometimes stop that motion."

"Women are much more like each other than men: they have, in truth, but two passions, vanity and love; these are their universal characteristics."

"Style is the dress of thoughts."

"Abject flattery and indiscriminate assentation degrade, as much as indiscriminate contradiction and noisy debate disgust. But a modest assertion of one’s own opinion, and a complaisant acquiescence in other people’s, preserve dignity."

"Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds."

"I recommend to you, in my last, an innocent piece of art: that of flattering people behind their backs, in presence of those who, to make their own court, much more than for your sake, will not fail to repeat, and even amplify, the praise to the party concerned. This is of all flattery the most pleasing, and consequently the most effectual."

"Without some dissimulation no business can be carried on at all."

"The herd of mankind can hardly be said to think; their notions are almost all adoptive; and, in general, I believe it is better that it should be so; as such common prejudices contribute more to order and quiet, than their own separate reasonings would do, uncultivated and unimproved as they are."

"A strong mind sees things in their true proportions; a weak one views them through a magnifying medium, which, like the microscope, makes an elephant of a flea: magnifies all little objects, but cannot receive great ones."

"Little minds mistake little objects for great ones, and lavish away upon the former that time and attention which only the latter deserve. To such mistakes we owe the numerous and frivolous tribe of insect-mongers, shell-mongers, and pursuers and driers of butterflies, etc. The strong mind distinguishes, not only between the useful and the useless, but likewise between the useful and the curious."

"Women who are either indisputably beautiful, or indisputably ugly, are best flattered upon the score of their understandings; but those who are in a state of mediocrity are best flattered upon their beauty, or at least their graces; for every woman who is not absolutely ugly thinks herself handsome."

"Manners must adorn knowledge, and smooth its way through the world. Like a great rough diamond, it may do very well in a closet by way of curiosity, and also for its intrinsic value."

"The characteristic of a well-bred man is, to converse with his inferiors without insolence, and with his superiors with respect and with ease."

"I am sure that since I have had the full use of my reason, nobody has ever heard me laugh."

"In my mind, there is nothing so illiberal and so ill-bred, as audible laughter."

"Sacrifice to the Graces."

"Never seem wiser, nor more learned, than the people you are with. Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket: and do not pull it out and strike it; merely to show that you have one."

"Speak of the moderns without contempt, and of the ancients without idolatry."

"Advice is seldom welcome; and those who want it the most always like it the least."

"Patience, to hear frivolous, impertinent, and unreasonable applications: with address enough to refuse, without offending; or, by your manner of granting, to double the obligation: dexterity enough to conceal a truth, without telling a lie: sagacity enough to read other people’s countenances: and serenity enough not to let them discover anything by yours; a seeming frankness, with a real reserve. These are the rudiments of a politician; the world must be your grammar."

"I recommend you to take care of the minutes: for hours will take care of themselves."

"The young leading the young, is like the blind leading the blind; “they will both fall into the ditch.”"

"I knew once a very covetous, sordid fellow, who used to say, "Take care of the pence, for the pounds will take care of themselves.""

"Take the tone of the company you are in."

"Do as you would be done by, is the surest method of pleasing."

"The world is a country which nobody ever yet knew by description; one must travel through it one's self to be acquainted with it."

"Courts and camps are the only places to learn the world in."

"I really know nothing more criminal, more mean, and more ridiculous than lying. It is the production either of malice, cowardice, or vanity; and generally misses of its aim in every one of these views; for lies are always detected, sooner or later."

"There is time enough for everything, in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once; but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time."

"An injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult."

"The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet."

"Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well."

"Be wiser than other people if you can; but do not tell them so."

"He adorned whatever subject he either spoke or wrote upon, by the most splendid eloquence."

"The nation looked upon him as a deserter, and he shrunk into insignificancy and an earldom."

"Marriage is the cure of love, and friendship the cure of marriage."

"Tyrawley and I have been dead these two years; but we don't choose to have it known."

"Religion is by no means a proper subject of conversation in a mixed company."