Numberless arts appear foolish whose secret motives are most wise and weighty.

Gallantry of mind consists in saying flattering things in an agreeable manner.

The common foible of women who have been handsome is to forget that they are no longer so.

We often pay our debts not because it is only fair that we should, but to make future loans easier.

Perhaps being old is having lighted rooms inside your head, and people in them, acting. People you know, yet can't quite name.

When we exaggerate our friends' tenderness towards us, it is often less from gratitude than from a desire to exhibit our own virtue.

In great affairs we ought to apply ourselves less to creating chances than to profiting from those that offer.