It is a great misfortune neither to have enough wit to talk well nor enough judgment to be silent.

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.

At the beginning and at the end of love, the two lovers are embarrassed to find themselves alone.

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

I am told so many ill things of a man, and I see so few in him, that I begin to suspect he has a real but troublesome merit, as being likely to eclipse that of others.

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

The majority of women have no principles of their own; they are guided by the heart, and depend for their own conduct, upon that of the men they love.