If it requires great tact to speak to the purpose, it requires no less to know when to be silent.

Fortune converts everything to the advantage of her favorites.

Sometimes, occasions occur in life which demand you to be a little foolish in order to skillfully extricate yourself.

Nothing hinders a thing from being natural so much as the straining ourselves to make it seem so.

Nothing is impossible; there are ways that lead to everything, and if we had sufficient will we should always have sufficient means. It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible.

Moderation is represented as a virtue in order to restrain the ambition of great men, and to console those of a meaner condition in their lesser merit and fortune.

Funeral pomp is more for the vanity of the living than for the honor of the dead.