Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life; cunning is a kind of instinct, that only looks out after our immediate interests and welfare. Discretion is only found in men of strong sense and good understanding; cunning is often to be met with in brutes themselves, and in persons who are but the fewest removes from them.

One seeks to make the loved one entirely happy, or, if that cannot be, entirely wretched.

Poverty may be the mother of crime, but lack of good sense is the father.

The duty of a judge is to administer justice, but his practice is to delay it

A coxcomb is one whom simpletons believe to be a man of merit.

The shortest and best way to make your fortune is to let people see clearly that it is in their interest to promote yours.

An assembly of the states, a court of justice, shows nothing so serious and grave as a table of gamesters playing very high; a melancholy solicitude clouds their looks; envy and rancor agitate their minds while the meeting lasts, without regard to friendship, alliances, birth or distinctions.