Gratitude is a useless word. You will find it in a dictionary but not in life.

What seems to be generosity is often no more than disguised ambition, which overlooks a small interest in order to secure a great one.

The defects and faults of the mind are like wounds in the body; after all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up, still there will be a scar left behind, and they are in continual danger of breaking the skin and bursting out again.

Instead of considering that the worst way to persuade or please others is to try thus strongly to please ourselves, and that to listen well and to answer well are some of the greatest charms we can have in conversation.

Nothing is so contagious as example.

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.

However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship.