There are certain people who so ardently and passionately desire a thing, that from dread of losing it they leave nothing undone to make them lose it.

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.

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

The pleasure of criticizing takes away from us the pleasure of being moved by some very fine things.

How happy the station which every moment furnishes opportunities of doing good to thousands! How dangerous that which every moment exposes to the injuring of millions!

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

The fool only is troublesome. A plan of sense perceives when he is agreeable or tiresome; he disappears the very minute before he would have been thought to have stayed too long.