Too great cleverness is but deceptive delicacy, true delicacy is the most substantial cleverness.

In the human heart one generation of passions follows another; from the ashes of one springs the spark of the next.

A great many men's gratitude is nothing but a secret desire to hook in more valuable kindnesses hereafter.

In the intercourse of life, we please more by our faults than by our good qualities.

He who refuses praise the first time that it is offered does so because he would hear it a second time.

The greatest part of our faults are more excusable than the methods that are commonly taken to conceal them.

Our wisdom lies as much at the mercy of fortune as our possessions do.