Elegance of manner is the outgrowth of refined and exalted sense.

Women, then, are only children of a larger growth

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.

Speak the language of the company you are in; speak it purely, and unlarded with any other.

An ignorant man is insignificant and contemptible; nobody cares for his company, and he can just be said to live, and that is all.

Sculpture and painting are very justly called liberal arts; a lively and strong imagination, together with a just observation, being absolutely necessary to excel in either; which, in my opinion, is by no means the case of music, though called a liberal art, and now in Italy placed even above the other two--a proof of the decline of that country.

Observe it, the vulgar often laugh, but never smile, whereas well-bred people often smile, and seldom or never laugh. A witty thing never excited laughter, it pleases only the mind and never distorts the countenance.