To be an agreeable guest one need only enjoy oneself.
Life is a country that the old have seen, and lived in. Those who have to travel through it can only learn from them.
Strength is not energy; some authors have more muscles than talent.
A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve.
How many books there are whose reputation is made that would not obtain it were it now to make?
A fluent writer always seems more talented than he is. To write well, one needs a natural felicity and an acquired difficulty.