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

Far from having taken any positive step, I have not yet even fommed any resolution.

No man is in love when he marries. He may have loved before; I have even heard he has sometimes loved after: but at the time never. There is something in the formalities of the matrimonial preparations that drive away all the little cupidons.

Travelling is the ruin of all happiness. There's no looking at a building here after seeing Italy.

For my part, I confess I seldom listen to the players: one has so much to do, in looking about and finding out one's acquaintance, that, really, one has no time to mind the stage. One merely comes to meet one's friends, and show that one's alive.

When young people are too rigidly sequestered from [the world], their lively and romantic imaginations paint it to them as a paradise of which they have been beguiled; but when they are shown it properly, and in due time, they see it such as it really is, equally shared by pain and pleasure, hope and disappointment.

To despise riches, may, indeed, be philosophic, but to dispense them worthily, must surely be more beneficial to mankind.