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!

It is motive alone that gives real value to the actions of men, and disinterestedness puts the cap to it.

Children enjoy the present because they have neither a past nor a future.

We are valued in this world at the rate we desire to be valued.

Eloquence may be found in conversations and in all kinds of writings; it is rarely found when looked for, and sometimes discovered where it is least expected.

If it be usual to be strongly impressed by things that are scarce, why are we so little impressed by virtue?

If a handsome woman allows that another woman is beautiful, we may safely conclude she excels her.