There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not.

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

Confidence always pleases those who receive it. It is a tribute we pay to their merit, a deposit we commit to their trust, a pledge that gives them a claim upon us, a kind of dependence to which we voluntarily submit.

To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection we are able to attain in the art of conversation.

Plenty of people want to be pious, but no one yearns to be humble.

Few things are impracticable in themselves; and it is for want of application, rather than of means, that men fail to succeed.

Moderation is the feebleness and sloth of the soul, whereas ambition is the warmth and activity of it.