Novelist

The English, the plain English, of the politest address of a gentleman to a lady is, I am now, dear Madam, your humble servant: Pray be so good as to let me be your Lord and Master.

Love will draw an elephant through a key-hole.

What we want to tell, we wish our friend to have curiosity to hear.

Necessity may well be called the mother of invention but calamity is the test of integrity.

Married people should not be quick to hear what is said by either when in ill humor.

There is but one pride pardonable; that of being above doing a base or dishonorable action.

Those who can least bear a jest upon themselves, will be most diverted with one passed on others.

Where words are restrained, the eyes often talk a great deal.

All human excellence is but comparative. There may be persons who excel us, as much as we fancy we excel the meanest.

The mind can be but full. It will be as much filled with a small disagreeable occurrence, having no other, as with a large one.

Humility is a grace that shines in a high condition but cannot, equally, in a low one because a person in the latter is already, perhaps, too much humbled.

The life of a good man is a continual warfare with his passions.

A man may keep a woman, but not his estate.

The World, thinking itself affronted by superior merit, takes delight to bring it down to its own level.

Love before marriage is absolutely necessary.

It is better to be thought perverse than insincere.

Those we dislike can do nothing to please us.

What likelihood is there of corrupting a man who has no ambition?

Women who have had no lovers, or having had one, two or three, have not found a husband, have perhaps rather had a miss than a loss, as men go.

The plays and sports of children are as salutary to them as labor and work are to grown persons.