Few things are needful to make the wise man happy, but nothing satisfies the fool; - and this is the reason why so many of mankind are miserable.

There are some persons who only disgust with their abilities, there are persons who please even with their faults.

Smallness of mind is the cause of stubbornness, and we do not credit readily what is beyond our view.

Nothing is more ridiculous in old people that were once good-looking, than to forget that they are not so still.

The most clever and polite are content with only seeming attentive while we perceive in their mind and eyes that at the very time they are wandering from what is said and desire to return to what they want to say.

The tranquility or agitation of our temper does not depend so much on the big things which happen to us in life, as on the pleasant or unpleasant arrangements of the little things which happen daily.

A small degree of wit, accompanied by good sense, is less tiresome in the long run than a great amount of wit without it.