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

Politeness does not always inspire goodness, equity, complaisance, and gratitude; it gives at least the appearance of these qualities, and makes man appear outwardly, as he should be within.

It is a proof of boorishness to confer a favor with a bad grace; it is the act of giving that is hard and painful. How little does a smile cost?

A man reveals his character even in the simplest things he does.

The very impossibility which I find to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence.

No man is so perfect, so necessary to his friends as to give them no cause to miss him less.

We seldom repent of speaking little, very often of speaking too much: a vulgar and trite maxim, which all the world knows and, but which all the world does not practice