When we have run through all forms of government, without partiality to that we were born under, we are at a loss with which to side; they are all a compound of good and evil. It is therefore most reasonable and safe to value that of our own country above all others, and to submit to it.

Avoid making yourself the subject of conversation.

We rarely repent of speaking little, but often of speaking too much.

Some young people do not sufficiently understand the advantages of natural charms, and how much they would gain by trusting to them entirely. They weaken these gifts of heaven, so rare and fragile, by affected manners and an awkward imitation. Their tones and their gait are borrowed; they study their attitudes before the glass until they have lost all trace of natural manner, and, with all their pains, they please but little.

Between good sense and good taste there lies the difference between a cause and its effect.

We all covet wealth, but not its perils.

When we are dead we are praised by those who survive us, though we frequently have no other merit than that of being no longer alive.