There are some men who are fortune's favorites, and who, like cats, light forever on their legs.

Wit in women is a jewel, which, unlike all others, borrows lustre from its setting, rather than bestows it; since nothing is so easy as to fancy a very beautiful woman extremely witty.

Let those who would affect singularity with success first determine to be very virtuous, and they will be sure to be very singular.

Peace is the evening star of the soul, as virtue is its sun, and the two are never far apart.

The worst thing that can be said of the most powerful is that they can take your life; but the same can be said of the most weak.

There are many women who have never intrigued, and many men who have never gamed; but those who have done either but once are very extraordinary animals.

Very great personages are not likely to form very just estimates either of others or of themselves; their knowledge of themselves is obscured by the flattery of others; their knowledge of others is equally clouded by circumstances peculiar to themselves. For in the presence of the great, the modest are sure to suffer from too much diffidence, and the confident from too much display.