Familiarity is the root of the closest friendships, as well as the interests hatreds.

To lose one's self in reverie, one must be either very happy, or very unhappy. Reverie is the child of extremes.

True felicity consists of its own consciousness.

There is nothing so unready as readiness of wit.

The most civilized people are as near to barbarism as the most polished steel is to rust. Nations, like metals, have only a superficial brilliancy.

Gold like the sun, which melts wax, but hardens clay, expands great souls.

There is even the dignity of vice.