Irony is to the high-bred what billingsgate is to the vulgar; and when one gentleman thinks another gentleman an ass, he does not say it point-blank, he implies it in the politest terms he can invent.

Birds sing in vain to the ear, flowers bloom in vain to the eye, of mortified vanity and galled ambition. He who would know repose in retirement must carry into retirement his destiny, integral and serene, as the Caesars transported the statue of Fortune into the chamber they chose for their sleep.

Better than fame is still the wish for fame, the constant training for a glorious strife.

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?

Castles in the air cost a vast deal to keep up.

Life is short - while we speak it flies; enjoy, then, the present, and forget the future; such is the moral of ancient poetry, a graceful and a wise moral - indulged beneath a southern sky, and all deserving, the phrase applied to it - the philosophy of the garden.

We must remember how apt man is to extremes--rushing from credulity and weakness to suspicion and distrust.