The spendthrift robs his heirs the miser robs himself.

A man must have very eminent qualities to hold his own without being polite.

There are some souls so base and filthy that they love gain and interest as noble souls love fame and virtue, knowing one pleasure only, that of making money or of not losing it; anxious and avid for their ten per cent; entirely preoccupied with what is owed them; forever concerned about the depreciation or discredit of money; buried, and as it were engulfed, amid contracts, title-deeds and parchments. Such people are neither parents, friends, citizens or Christians, nor, perhaps, even men; they merely have money.

The pleasure we feel in criticizing robs us from being moved by very beautiful things.

There are only two ways by which to rise in this world, either by one's own industry or by the stupidity of others.

There are few wives so perfect as not to give their husbands at least once a day good reason to repent of ever having married, or at least of envying those who are unmarried.

Widows, like ripe fruit, drop easily from their perch.