The heart never grows better by age; I fear rather worse; always harder.

Good humor is the health of the soul, sadness is its poison.

Give Dayrolles a chair.

The power of applying attention, steady and undissipated, to a single object, is the sure mark of superior genius.

The herd of mankind can hardly be said to think; their notions are almost all adoptive; and, in general, I believe it is better that it should be so; as such common prejudices contribute more to order and quiet, than their own separate reasonings would do, uncultivated and unimproved as they are.

To have frequent recourse to narrative betrays great want of imagination.

All ceremonies are in themselves very silly things; but yet, a man of the world should know them. They are the outworks of Mannersand Decency, which would be too often broken in upon, if it were not for that defence, which keeps the enemy at a proper distance.