Candour is the brightest gem of criticism.

You will find as you grow older that courage is the rarest of all qualities to be found in public life.

Diligence is the mother of good fortune.

You have heard me accused me of being a flatterer. It is true. I am a flatterer. I have found it useful. Everyone likes flattery; and when you come to Royalty …

You may tell a man thou art a fiend, but not your nose wants blowing; to him alone who can bear a thing of that kind, you may tell all.

Criticism is properly the rod of divination: a hazel switch for the discovery of buried treasure, not a birch twig for the castigation of offenders.

Satire, though it may exaggerate the vice it lashes, is not justified in creating it in order that it may be lashed.