There are some people upon whom their very faults and failings sit gracefully; and there are others whose very excellencies and accomplishments do not become them.

We frequently do good in order to enable us to do evil later with impunity exemption of punishment.

Some accidents there are in life that a little folly is necessary to help us out of.

Nothing is so contagious as example; and we never do any great good or evil which does not produce its like.

It is not expedient or wise to examine our friends too closely; few persons are raised in our esteem by a close examination.

We get so much in the habit of wearing disguises before others that we finally appear disguised before ourselves.

Clemency, which we make a virtue of, proceeds sometimes from vanity, sometimes from indolence, often from fear, and almost always from a mixture of all three.