There are fine things that are more brilliant when they are unfinished than when finished too much.

Affected simplicity is a subtle imposture.

Youth changes its tastes by the warmth of its blood; age retains its tastes by habit.

Every one complains of a poor memory, no one of a weak judgment.

Ridicule dishonors a man more than dishonor does.

Sometimes there are accidents in our lives the skillful extrication from which demands a little folly.

Humility is often only the putting on of a submissiveness by which men hope to bring other people to submit to them; it is a morecalculated sort of pride, which debases itself with a design of being exalted; and though this vice transform itself into a thousand several shapes, yet the disguise is never more effectual nor more capable of deceiving the world than when concealed under a form of humility.