Do as you would be done by, is the surest method of pleasing.

Vanity, or to call it by a gentler name, the desire of admiration and applause, is, perhaps, the most universal principle of humanactions.... Where that desire is wanting, we are apt to be indifferent, listless, indolent, and inert.... I will own to you, under the secrecy of confession, that my vanity has very often made me take great pains to make many a woman in love with me, if I could, for whose person I would not have given a pinch of snuff.

Very ugly or very beautiful women should be flattered on their understanding, and mediocre ones on their beauty.

Never write down your speeches beforehand; if you do, you may perhaps be a good declaimer, but will never be a debater.

Seek always for the best words and the happiest expression you can find.

We are hardly ever grateful for a fine clock or watch when it goes right, and we pay attention to it only when it falters, for then we are caught by surprise. It ought to be the other way about.

Swift speedy time, feathered with flying hours, Dissolves the beauty of the fairest brow.