As long as men are liable to die and are desirous to live, a physician will be made fun of, but he will be well paid.

To give awkwardly is churlishness. The most difficult part is to give, then why not add a smile?

He who excels in his art so as to carry it to the utmost height of perfection of which it is capable may be said in some measure to go beyond it: his transcendent productions admit of no appellations.

The wise person often shuns society for fear of being bored.

A man who is free and unmarried, if he has some intelligence, can rise above his fortune, mingle in society and meet the best people on an equal footing. This is harder for a married man: marriage, it seems, confines every man to his proper rank.

We seldom repent of speaking little, very often of speaking too much: a vulgar and trite maxim, which all the world knows and, but which all the world does not practice

The same common sense which makes an author write good things, makes him dread they are not good enough to deserve reading.