There are some extraordinary fathers, who seem, during the whole course of their lives, to be giving their children reasons for being consoled at their death.

A vain man finds his account in speaking good or evil of himself.

The sublime only paints the true, and that too in noble objects; it paints it in all its phases, its cause and its effect; it is the most worthy expression or image of this truth. Ordinary minds cannot find out the exact expression, and use synonymes.

The mind, like all other things, will become impaired, the sciences are its food,--they nourish, but at the same time they consume it.

The great charm of conversation consists less in the display of one's own wit and intelligence than in the power to draw forth the resources of others.

The nearer we approach great men, the clearer we see that they are men.

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.