All the world says of a coxcomb that he is a coxcomb; but no one dares to say so to his face, and he dies without knowing it.

There is no road too long to the man who advances deliberately and without undue haste; there are no honors too distant to the man who prepares himself for them with patience.

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

Eloquence is to the sublime what the whole is to the part.

There is speaking well, speaking easily, speaking justly and speaking seasonably: It is offending against the last, to speak of entertainments before the indigent; of sound limbs and health before the infirm; of houses and lands before one who has not so much as a dwelling; in a word, to speak of your prosperity before the miserable; this conversation is cruel, and the comparison which naturally arises in them betwixt their condition and yours is excruciating.

The first day one is a guest, the second a burden, and the third a pest.

A heap of epithets is poor praise: the praise lies in the facts, and in the way of telling them.