The most skillful flattery is to let a person talk on, and be a listener.

Good nature will always supply the absence of beauty; but beauty cannot supply the absence of good nature.

There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.

It is wonderful to see persons of sense passing away a dozen hours together in shuffling and dividing a pack of cards.

In the loss of an object we do not proportion our grief to the real value it bears, but to the value our fancies set upon it.

I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.

We cannot be guilty of a greater act of uncharitableness, than to interpret the afflictions which befall our neighbors as punishments and judgments.