What must the English and French think of the language of our philosophers when we Germans do not understand it ourselves?

Old age is never honored among us, but only indulged, as childhood is; and old men lose one of the most precious rights of man,--that of being judged by their peers.

A vain man can never be altogether rude. Desirous as he is of pleasing, he fashions his manners after those of others.

The spirit from which we act is the principal matter.

It is not doing the thing we like to do, but liking the thing we have to do, that makes life blessed.

All that is transitory is but a metaphor.

Anecdotes and maxims are rich treasures to the man of the world, for he knows how to introduce the former at fit place in conversation.