Agreeable surprises are the perquisites of youth.

Toil to some is happiness, and rest to others. This man can only breathe in crowds, and that man only in solitudes.

Power is so characteristically calm, that calmness in itself has the aspect of strength.

Vanity calculates but poorly on the vanity of others; what a virtue we should distil from frailty, what a world of pain we should save our brethren, if we would suffer our own weakness to be the measure of theirs.

Grief alone can teach us what is man.

The distinguishing trait of people accustomed to good society is a calm, imperturbable quiet which pervades all their actions and habits, from the greatest to the least. They eat in quiet, move in quiet, live in quiet, and lose their wife, or even their money, in quiet; while low persons cannot take up either a spoon or an affront without making such an amazing noise about it.

Come, Death, and snatch me from disgrace.