The dearest things in the world are our neighbor's eyes; they cost everybody more than anything else in housekeeping. - Sydney Smith

If you could be alarmed into the semblance of modesty, you would charm everybody; but remember my joke against you about the Moon and the Solar System;—"Damn the solar system! bad light — planets too distant — pestered with comets — feeble contriviance; — could make a better with great ease."

No one minds what Jeffrey says:[…] it is not more than a week ago that I heard him speak disrespectfully of the Equator.

Preaching has become a byword for long and dull conversation of any kind; and whoever wishes to imply, in any piece of writing, the absence of everything agreeable and inviting, calls it a sermon.