A good author, and one who writes carefully, often discovers that the expression of which he has been in search without being able to discover it, and which he has at last found, is that which was the most simple, the most natural, and which seems as if it ought to have presented itself at once, without effort, to the mind.

The generality of men expend the early part of their lives in contributing to render the latter part miserable.

The regeneration of society is the regeneration of society by individual education.

A man of moderate Understanding, thinks he writes divinely: A man of good Understanding, thinks he writes reasonably.

There are certain things in which mediocrity is intolerable: poetry, music, painting, public eloquence. What torture it is to hear a frigid speech being pompously declaimed, or second-rate verse spoken with all a bad poet's bombast!

The very essence of politeness seems to be to take care that by our words and actions we make other people pleased with us as well as with themselves.

High birth is a gift of fortune which should never challenge esteem towards those who receive it, since it costs them neither study nor labor.