Where there is much pretension, much has been borrowed; nature never pretends.

An entirely honest man, in the severe sense of the word, exists no more than an entirely dishonest knave: the best and the worst are only approximations of those qualities. Who are those that never contradict themselves? yet honesty never contradicts itself: Who are those that always contradict themselves? yet knavery is mere self-contradiction. Thus the knowledge of man determines not the things themselves, but their proportions, the quan∣tum of congruities and incongruities.

Just so far as we are pleased at finding faults, are we displeased at finding perfection.

Neither refinement nor delicacy is indispensable to produce elegance.

Neatness begets order; but from order to taste there is the same difference as from taste to genius, or from love to friendship.

Joy and grief decide character. What exalts prosperity? what imbitters grief? what leaves us indifferent? what interests us? As the interest of man, so his God - as his God, so he.

Where there is much pretension, much has been borrowed; nature never pretends.