The fool only is troublesome. A plan of sense perceives when he is agreeable or tiresome; he disappears the very minute before he would have been thought to have stayed too long.

A man must have very eminent qualities to hold his own without being polite.

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

Too great carelessness, equally with excess in dress, multiplies the wrinkles of old age, and makes its decay still more conspicuous.

All the world says of a coxcomb that he is a coxcomb; but no one dares to say so to his face, and he dies without knowing it.

Piety with some people, but especially with women, is either a passion, or an infirmity of age, or a fashion which must be followed.

If men wish to be held in esteem, they must associate with those only who are estimable.