"The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise is gone."

Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 331.

"That chastity of honour which felt a stain like a wound."

Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 332.

"Vice itself lost half its evil by losing all its grossness."

Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 332.

"Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle."

Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 334.

"Learning will be cast into the mire and trodden down under the hoofs of a swinish multitude."

Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 335.

"Because half-a-dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field; that of course they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little shrivelled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome insects of the hour."

Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 344.

"In their nomination to office they will not appoint to the exercise of authority as to a pitiful job, but as to a holy function."

Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 356.

"The men of England,--the men, I mean, of light and leading in England."

Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 365.

"He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper."

Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 453.

"To execute laws is a royal office; to execute orders is not to be a king. However, a political executive magistracy, though merely such, is a great trust."

Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 497.

"You can never plan the future by the past."

Letter to a Member of the National Assembly. Vol. iv. p. 55.

"The cold neutrality of an impartial judge."

Preface to Brissot's Address. Vol. v. p. 67.

"And having looked to Government for bread, on the very first scarcity they will turn and bite the hand that fed them."

Thoughts and Details on Scarcity. Vol. v. p. 156.

"All men that are ruined, are ruined on the side of their natural propensities."

Letter i. On a Regicide Peace. Vol. v. p. 286.

"All those instances to be found in history, whether real or fabulous, of a doubtful public spirit, at which morality is perplexed, reason is staggered, and from which affrighted Nature recoils, are their chosen and almost sole examples for the instruction of their youth."

Letter i. On a Regicide Peace. Vol. v. p. 311.

"Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other."

Letter i. On a Regicide Peace. Vol. v. p. 331.

"Early and provident fear is the mother of safety."

Speech on the Petition of the Unitarians. Vol. vii. p. 50.

"There never was a bad man that had ability for good service."

Speech in opening the Impeachment of Warren Hastings. Third Day. Vol. x. p. 54.

"The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion."

Speech at County Meeting of Bucks, 1784.

"I would rather sleep in the southern corner of a little country churchyard than in the tomb of the Capulets."

Letter to Matthew Smith.

"It has all the contortions of the sibyl without the inspiration."

Prior's Life of Burke.

"He was not merely a chip of the old block, but the old block itself."

On Pitt's First Speech, Feb. 26, 1781. From Wraxall's Memoirs, First Series, vol. i. p. 342.

"He mouths a sentence as curs mouth a bone."

The Rosciad. Line 322.

"But, spite of all the criticising elves, Those who would make us feel--must feel themselves."

The Rosciad. Line 961.

"Who to patch up his fame, or fill his purse, Still pilfers wretched plans, and makes them worse; Like gypsies, lest the stolen brat be known, Defacing first, then claiming for his own."

The Apology. Line 232.

"No statesman e'er will find it worth his pains To tax our labours and excise our brains."

Night. Line 271.

"Apt alliteration 's artful aid."

The Prophecy of Famine. Line 86.

"There webs were spread of more than common size, And half-starved spiders prey'd on half-starved flies."

The Prophecy of Famine. Line 327.

"With curious art the brain, too finely wrought, Preys on herself, and is destroyed by thought."

Epistle to William Hogarth. Line 645.

"Men the most infamous are fond of fame, And those who fear not guilt yet start at shame."

The Author. Line 233.

"Be England what she will, With all her faults she is my country still."

The Farewell. Line 27.

"Is base in kind, and born to be a slave."

Table Talk. Line 28.

"As if the world and they were hand and glove."

Table Talk. Line 173.

"Happiness depends, as Nature shows, Less on exterior things than most suppose."

Table Talk. Line 246.

"Freedom has a thousand charms to show, That slaves, howe'er contented, never know."

Table Talk. Line 260.

"Manner is all in all, whate'er is writ, The substitute for genius, sense, and wit."

Table Talk. Line 542.

"Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appear'd, And ages ere the Mantuan swan was heard: To carry nature lengths unknown before, To give a Milton birth, ask'd ages more."

Table Talk. Line 556.

"Elegant as simplicity, and warm As ecstasy."

Table Talk. Line 588.

"Low ambition and the thirst of praise."

Table Talk. Line 591.

"Made poetry a mere mechanic art."

Table Talk. Line 654.

"Nature, exerting an unwearied power, Forms, opens, and gives scent to every flower; Spreads the fresh verdure of the field, and leads The dancing Naiads through the dewy meads."

Table Talk. Line 690.

"Lights of the world, and stars of human race."

The Progress of Error. Line 97.

"How much a dunce that has been sent to roam Excels a dunce that has been kept at home!"

The Progress of Error. Line 415.

"Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true,-- A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew."

Truth. Line 327.

"The sounding jargon of the schools."

Truth. Line 367.

"When one that holds communion with the skies Has fill'd his urn where these pure waters rise, And once more mingles with us meaner things, 'T is e'en as if an angel shook his wings."

Charity. Line 435.

"A fool must now and then be right by chance."

Conversation. Line 96.

"He would not, with a peremptory tone, Assert the nose upon his face his own."

Conversation. Line 121.

"A moral, sensible, and well-bred man Will not affront me,--and no other can."

Conversation. Line 193.

"Pernicious weed! whose scent the fair annoys, Unfriendly to society's chief joys: Thy worst effect is banishing for hours The sex whose presence civilizes ours."

Conversation. Line 251.