To please people is a great step towards persuading them.

At any age we must cherish illusions, consolatory or merely pleasant; in youth, they are omnipresent; in old age we must search for them, or even invent them. But with all that, boredom is their natural and inevitable accompaniment.

In business be as able as you can, but do not be cunning; cunning is the dark sanctuary of incapacity.

It is good breeding alone that can prepossess people in your favor at first sight, more time being necessary to discover greater talents.

If you wish particularly to gain the good graces and affection of certain people, men or women, try to discover their most striking merit, if they have one, and their dominant weakness, for every one has his own, then do justice to the one, and a little more than justice to the other.

An able man shows his spirit by gentle words and resolute actions.

A young fellow ought to be wiser than he should seem to be; and an old fellow ought to seem wise whether he really be so or not.