Judgment is not upon all occasions required, but discretion always is.

Cardinal Mazarin was a great knave, but no great man; much more cunning than able; scandalously false and dirtily greedy.

Love has been not unaptly compared to the small-pox, which most people have sooner or later.

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

Sexual intercourse is a grossly overrated pastime; the position is undignified, the pleasure momentary and the consequences damnable.

The less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in.

Good breeding and good nature do incline us rather to help and raise people up to ourselves, than to mortify and depress them, and, in truth, our own private interest concurs in it, as it is making ourselves so many friends, instead of so many enemies.