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.

The world is a country which nobody ever yet knew by description; one must travel through it one's self to be acquainted with it.

If ever a man and his wife, or a man and his mistress, who pass nights as well as days together, absolutely lay aside all good breeding, their intimacy will soon degenerate into a coarse familiarity, infallibly productive of contempt or disgust.

People will no more advance their civility to a bear, than their money to a bankrupt.

Were you to converse with a king, you ought to be as easy and unembarrassed as with your own valet-de chambre; but yet every look,word, and action should imply the utmost respect.... You must wait till you are spoken to; you must receive, not give, the subject of conversation, and you must even take care that the given subject of such conversation do not lead you into any impropriety.

The company of women of fashion will improve your manners, though not your understanding; and that complaisance and politeness, which are so useful in men's company, can only be acquired in women's.

Those whom you can make like themselves better will, I promise you, like you very well.