Whatever people in general do not understand, they are al ways prepared to dislike; the incomprehensible is always the obnoxious.

to the many, witticisms not only require to be explained, like riddles, but are also like new shoes, which people require to wear many times before they get accustomed to them.

Strange the affection which clings to inanimate objects - objects which cannot even know our love! But it is not return that constitutes the strength of an attachment.

Memory has many conveniences, and, among others, that of foreseeing things as they have afterwards happened.

Repentance is a one-faced Janus, ever looking to the past.

Nothing more strongly marks the insufficiency of luxuries than the ease with which people grow accustomed to them; they are rather known by their want than by their presence. The word 'blasé' has been coined expressly for the use of the upper classes.

Hope is love's happiness, but not its life.