Life is a kind of sleep: old men sleep longest, nor begin to wake but when they are to die.

There are certain things in which mediocrity is not to be endured, such as poetry, music, painting, public speaking.

It is through madness that we hate an enemy, and think of revenging ourselves; and it is through indolence that we are appeased, and do not revenge ourselves.

Life at court does not satisfy a man, but it keeps him from being satisfied with anything else.

A woman with eyes only for one person, or with eyes always averted from him, creates exactly the same impression.

Criticism is often not a science; it is a craft, requiring more good health than wit, more hard work than talent, more habit than native genius. In the hands of a man who has read widely but lacks judgment, applied to certain subjects it can corrupt both its readers and the writer himself.

He who can wait for what he desires takes the course not to be exceedingly grieved if he fails of it; he, on the contrary, who labors after a thing too impatiently thinks the success when it comes is not a recompense equal to all the pains he has been at about it.