Courage is generosity of the highest order, for the brave are prodigal of the most precious things.

Falsehood is often rocked by truth, but she soon outgrows her cradle and discards her nurse.

He that has energy enough to root out a vice should go further, and try to plant a virtue in its place.

The pride of ancestry is a superstructure of the most imposing height, but resting on the most flimsy foundation. It is ridiculous enough to observe the hauteur with which the old nobility look down on the new. The reason of this puzzled me a little, until I began to reflect that most titles are respectable only because they are old; if new, they would be despised, because all those who now admire the grandeur of the stream would see nothing but the impurity of the source.

The intoxication of anger, like that of the grape, shows us to others, but hides us from ourselves.

Secrecy is the soul of all great designs.

Insults are engendered from vulgar minds, like toadstools from a dunghill.