Buy good books, and read them; the best books are the commonest, and the last editions are always the best, if the editors are not blockheads.

We are, in truth, more than half what we are by imitation.

Remember, that when I speak of pleasures I always mean the elegant pleasures of a rational being, and not the brutal ones of a swine. I mean la bonne chère, short of gluttony; wine, infinitely short of drunkenness; play, without the least gaming; and gallantry, without debauchery.

A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things but cannot receive great ones.

Never seem wiser, nor more learned, than the people you are with. Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket: and do not merely pull it out and strike it; merely to show that you have one.

For my own part, I would rather be in company with a dead man than with an absent one; for if the dead man gives me no pleasure, at least he shows me no contempt; whereas the absent one, silently indeed, but very plainly, tells me that he does not think me worth his attention.

Common sense (which, in truth, is very uncommon) is the best sense I know of: abide by it; it will counsel you best.