A mediocre mind thinks it writes divinely; a good mind thinks it writes reasonably.

There are certain people who so ardently and passionately desire a thing, that from dread of losing it they leave nothing undone to make them lose it.

Caprice in woman is the antidote to beauty.

Manners carry the world for the moment, character for all time.

We hope to grow old and we dread old age; that is to say, we love life and we flee from death.

Amongst such as out of cunning hear all and talk little, be sure to talk less; or if you must talk, say little.

False greatness is unsociable and remote: conscious of its own frailty, it hides, or at least averts its face, and reveals itself only enough to create an illusion and not be recognized as the meanness that it really is. True greatness is free, kind, familiar and popular; it lets itself be touched and handled, it loses nothing by being seen at close quarters; the better one knows it, the more one admires it.