A gift--its kind, its value and appearance; the silence or the pomp that attends it; the style in which it reaches you--may decide the dignity or vulgarity of the giver.

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.

Each particle of matter is an immensity, each leaf a world, each insect an inexplicable compendium.

Copiousness and simplicity, variety and unity, constitute real greatness of character.

A fop of fashion is the mercer's friend, the tailor's fool, and his own foe.

The worst of faces still is human.

Good-humor is always a success.