Kiss the hand of him who can renounce what he has publicly taught when convicted of his error, and who, with heartfelt joy, embraces truth, though with the sacrifice of favourite opinions.

Be neither too early in the fashion, nor too long out of it; nor at any time in the extremes of it.

Say not you know another entirely till you have divided an inheritance with him.

Take here the grand secret; if not of pleasing all, yet of displeasing none, and court mediocrity, avoid originality, and sacrifice to fashion.

His calumny is not only the greatest benefit a rogue can confer on us, but the only service he will perform for nothing.

A sneer is often the sign of heartless malignity.

Learn the value of a man's words and expressions, and you know him. Each man has a measure of his own for everything; this he offers you inadvertently in his words. He who has a superlative for everything wants a measure for the great or small.