The hand that unnerved Belshazzar derived its most horrifying influence from the want of a body, and death itself is not formidable in what we do know of it, but in what we do not.

She is deceitful as the calm that precedes the hurricane, smooth as the water on the verge of the cataract, and beautiful as the rainbow, that smiling daughter of the storm; but, like the mirage in the desert, she tantalizes us with a delusion that distance creates, and that contiguity destroys.

It is astonishing how much more people are interested in lengthening life than improving it.

Temperate men drink the most, because they drink the longest.

Miss Edgeworth and Mme. de Stael have proved that there is no sex in style; and Mme. la Roche Jacqueline, and the Duchesse d'Angouleme have proved that there is no sex in courage.

Those graces which from their presumed facility encourage all to attempt an imitation of them, are usually the most inimitable.

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.