Two people cannot be alone together for upwards of half an hour without one emerging as the superior.

Knowledge is a comfortable and necessary retreat and shelter for us in an advanced age; and if we do not plant it while young, it will give us no shade when we grow old.

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

It may be objected, that I am now recommending dissimulation to you; I both own and justify it. It has been long said: Qui nescitdissimular nescit regnare: I go still farther, and say, that without some dissimulation, no business can be carried on at all.

A man's own good breeding is the best security against other people's ill manners.

The possibility of remedying imprudent actions is commonly an inducement to commit them.

Learning is acquired by reading books; much more necessary learning, the knowledge of the world, is only to be acquired by reading men, and studying all the various editions of them.