Hurd's Dialogues, Moral and Political.

The ruling principle of philosophy is to make the best of every situation. Not a sullen and inflexible sincerity; but a fair and reasonable accommodation of one-self to the various exigencies of the times, is the golden virtue that ought to predominate in a man of life and business.

Your eyes sparkled defiance and contradiction to my argument.

Even in my earliest years at school, you will hardly imagine how uneasy constraint of every kind was to me, and with what delight I broke away from the customary sports and pastimes of that age, to saunter the time away by myself, or with a companion, if I could meet with any such, of my own humour.

I found this gilded life, at court, empty, fallacious, and even disgusting—where the only object, that all men are in quest of, is gain, and the only deity they acknowledge, fortune.

Cultivate every flower of humanity, every elegance of art and genius. The rays of sacred opinion are the real strength as well as gilding of a crown.

These dialogues are truly excellent food and wine for strong men.