Young people are dazzled by the brilliancy of antithesis, and employ it. Matter-of-fact men, and those who like precision, naturally fall into comparisons and metaphor. Sprightly natures, full of fire, and whom a boundless imagination carries beyond all rules, and even what is reasonable, cannot rest satisfied even with hyperbole. As for the sublime, it is only great geniuses and those of the very highest order that are able to rise to its height.

A well-born man is fortunate, but so is the man about whom people no longer ask, 'is he well-born?'

The great charm of conversation consists less in the display of one's own wit and intelligence than in the power to draw forth the resources of others.

We seldom repent talking little, but very often talking too much.

There is not in the world so toilsome a trade as the pursuit of fame; life concludes before you have so much as sketched your work.

The pleasure a man of honor enjoys in the consciousness of having performed his duty is a reward he pays himself for all his pains.

Jesting is often only indigence of intellect.