The great charm of conversation consists less in the display of one's own wit and intelligence than in the power to draw forth the resources of others.

There is what is called the highway to posts and honor, and there is a cross and by way, which is much the shortest.

The Opera is obviously the first draft of a fine spectacle; it suggests the idea of one.

Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life; cunning is a kind of instinct, that only looks out after our immediate interests and welfare. Discretion is only found in men of strong sense and good understanding; cunning is often to be met with in brutes themselves, and in persons who are but the fewest removes from them.

False modesty is the masterpiece of vanity: showing the vain man in such an illusory light that he appears in the reputation of the virtue quite opposite to the vice which constitutes his real character; it is a deceit.

It is virtue which should determine us in the choice of our friends, without inquiring into their good or evil fortune.

Friendship * * * is a long time in forming, it is of slow growth, through many trials and months of familiarity.