Ambitious men spend their youth in rendering themselves worthy of patronage; it is their great mistake. While the foolish creatures are laying in stores of knowledge and energy, so that they shall not sink under the weight of responsible posts that recede from them, schemers come and go who are wealthy in words and destitute of ideas, astonish the ignorant, and creep into the confidence of those who have a little knowledge.

Love is a religion, and its rituals cost more than those of other religions. It goes by quickly and, like a street urchin, it likes to mark its passage by a trail of devastation.

A rent in your clothes is a mishap, a stain on them is a vice.

Society bristles with enigmas which look hard to solve. It is a perfect maze of intrigue.

An ugly woman, married to King Henry VIII, would have defied the axe and daunted her husband's infidelities.

In love, what a woman mistakes for disgust is actually clearsightedness. If she does not admire a man, she scorns him.

We exaggerate misfortune and happiness alike. We are never as bad off or as happy as we say we are.