Many a truth is told in jest.
Time is painted with a lock before, and bald behind, signifying thereby that we must take time by the forelock; for, when it is once past, there is no recalling it.
Nor do they trust their tongue alone, but speak a language of their own; can read a nod, a shrug, a look, far better than a printed book; convey a libel in a frown, and wink a reputation down.
I won’t quarrel with my bread and butter.
It is in disputes as in armies, where the weaker side sets up false lights, and makes a great noise, to make the enemy believe them more numerous and strong than they really are.
Lord, Madame, I have fed like a farmer; I shall grow as fat as a porpoise.
There is no quality so contrary to any nature which one cannot affect, and put on upon occasion, in order to serve an interest.
By candle-light nobody would have taken you for above five-and-twenty.
In all distresses of our friends We first consult our private ends; While Nature, kindly bent to ease us, Points out some circumstance to please us.
Usually speaking, the worst-bred person in company is a young traveller just returned from abroad.
So geographers, in Africa maps, With savage pictures fill their gaps, And o’er uninhabitable downs Place elephants for want of towns.
For, what though his Head be empty, provided his Common place-Book be full...
Rebukes are easy from our betters, From men of quality and letters; But when low dunces will affront, What man alive can stand the brunt?
A footman may swear; but he cannot swear like a lord. He can swear as often: but can he swear with equal delicacy, propriety, and judgment?
Dignity, high station, or great riches, are in some sort necessary to old men, in order to keep the younger at a distance, who are otherwise too apt to insult them upon the score of their age.
I have known some men possessed of good qualities which were very serviceable to others, but useless to themselves; like a sun-dial on the front of a house, to inform the neighbours and passengers, but not the owner within.
Modesty may make a fool seem a man of sense.
An excuse is a lie guarded.
My Lawyer being practiced almost from his Cradle in defending Falsehood; is quite out of his Element when he would be an Advocate for Justice, which as an Office unnatural, he always attempts with great Awkwardness if not with Ill-will.
A prince, the moment he is crown’d, Inherits every virtue sound, As emblems of the sovereign power, Like other baubles in the Tower: Is generous, valiant, just, and wise, And so continues till he dies.