A foreign minister, I will maintain it, can never be a good man of business if he is not an agreeable man of pleasure too. Half his business is done by the help of his pleasures: his views are carried on, and perhaps best, and most unsuspectedly, at balls, suppers, assemblies, and parties of pleasure; by intrigues with women, and connections insensibly formed with men, at those unguarded hours of amusement.

Silence and reserve suggest latent power. What some men think has more effect than what others say.

Polished brass will pass upon more people than rough gold.

A vulgar man is captious and jealous; eager and impetuous about trifles. He suspects himself to be slighted, and thinks everything that is said meant at him.

Give nobly to indigent merit, and do not refuse your charity even to those who have not merit but their misery.

Two people cannot be alone together for upwards of half an hour without one emerging as the superior.

Style is the dress of thoughts, and let them be ever so just.