The very essence of politeness seems to be to take care that by our words and actions we make other people pleased with us as well as with themselves.

Envy and hatred go together. Mutually strengthened by the fact pursue the same object.

There are certain things in which mediocrity is intolerable: poetry, music, painting, public eloquence. What torture it is to hear a frigid speech being pompously declaimed, or second-rate verse spoken with all a bad poet's bombast!

It seems to me that the spirit of politeness is a certain attention in causing that, by our words and by our manners, others may be content with us and with themselves.

The most delicate, the most sensible of all pleasures, consists in promoting the pleasure of others.

Two persons cannot long be friends if they cannot forgive each other's little failings.

The finest pleasure is kindness to others.