The events we most desire do not happen; or, if they do, it is neither in the time nor in the circumstances when they would have given us extreme pleasure.

Jesting is often only indigence of intellect.

The exact contrary of what is generally believed is often the truth.

As a man falls out of favour and his wealth declines, we discover for the first time the ridiculous aspects of his character, which were always there but which wealth and favour had concealed.

Every hour in itself, as it respects us in particular, is the only one we can call our own.

Caprice in woman is the antidote to beauty.

A man is thirty years old before he has any settled thoughts of his fortune; it is not completed before fifty. He falls to building in his old age, and dies by the time his house is in a condition to be painted and glazed.