I love and honour [Paulus Aemilius, in Plutarch's Lives], for his fondness for his children, which instead of blushing at, he avows and glories in: and that at an age, when almost all the heros and great men thought that to make their children and family a secondary concern, was the first proof of their superiority and greatness of soul.

... there's nothing but quarreling with the women; it's my belief they like it better than victuals and drink.

I cannot be much pleased without an appearance of truth; at least of possibility I wish the history to be natural though the sentiments are refined; and the characters to be probable, though their behaviour is excelling

Money is the source of the greatest vice, and that nation which is most rich, is most wicked.

To Nobody, then, will I write my Journal! since to Nobody can I be wholly unreserved, to Nobody can I reveal every thought, every wish of my heart, with the most unlimited confidence, the most unremitting sincerity, to the end of my life!

Nothing is so delicate as the reputation of a woman; it is at once the most beautiful and most brittle of all human things.

The Spring is generally fertile in new acquaintances.