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

A simple garb is the proper costume of the vulgar; it is cut for them, and exactly suits their measure, but it is an ornament for those who have filled up their lives with great deeds. I liken them to beauty in dishabille, but more bewitching on that account.

Everything has been said, and we have come too late, now that men have been living and thinking for seven thousand years and more.

The most exquisite pleasure is giving pleasure to others.

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

The best thing next to wit is a consciousness that it is not in us; without wit, a man might then know how to behave himself, so as not to appear to be a fool or a coxcomb.

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.