You have to appear wiser and more prudent than is required by the people you are dealing with if you want to give a high opinion of yourself.

Courtesy is the politic witchery of great personages.

There is no revenge like oblivion, for it is the entombment of the unworthy in the dust of their own nothingness.

There is no beauty unaided, no excellence that does not sink to the barbarous, unless saved by art.

There must be something good in a thing that pleases so many; even if it cannot be explained, it is certainly enjoyed.

Never lose your self-respect, nor be too familiar with yourself when you are alone. Let your integrity itself be your own standard of rectitude, and be more indebted to the severity of your own judgment of yourself than to all external percepts. Desist from unseemly conduct, rather out of respect for your own virtue than for the strictures of external authority.

Lies always come first, dragging fools along by their irreparable vulgarity. Truth always lags last, limping along on the arm of time.