There is nothing so agonizing to the fine skin of vanity as the application of a rough truth.

People praise us behind our backs, but we hear them not; few before our faces, and who is not suspicious of the truth of such praise?

There is no such thing as luck. It's a fancy name for being always at our duty, and so sure to be ready when good time comes.

The secret of fashion is to surprise and never to disappoint.

Patience is not passive; on the contrary, it is active; it is concentrated strength.

How many of us have been attracted to reason; first learned to think, to draw conclusions, to extract a moral from the follies of life, by some dazzling aphorism.

Nothing really immoral is ever permanently popular.