Remember that the wit, humour, and jokes of most mixed companies are local. They thrive in that particular soil, but will not often bear transplanting.

Men, as well as women, are much oftener led by their hearts than by their understandings.

Singularity is only pardonable in old age and retirement; I may now be as singular as I please, but you may not.

Our own self-love draws a thick veil between us and our faults.

Anne of Austria (with great submission to a Crowned Head do I say it) was a B----. She had spirit and courage without parts, devotion without common morality, and lewdness without tenderness either to justify or to dignify it. Her two sons were no more Lewis the Thirteen's than they were mine.

Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it.

Never seem wiser, nor more learned, than the people you are with. Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket: and do not merely pull it out and strike it; merely to show that you have one.