Merit and knowledge will not gain hearts, though they will secure them when gained.

Vulgarism in language is the distinguishing characteristic of bad company, and a bad education. A man of fashion avoids nothing with more care than that. Proverbial expressions, and trite sayings, are the flowers of the rhetoric of vulgar man.

Real merit of any kind cannot long be concealed; it will be discovered, and nothing can depreciate it but a man exhibiting it himself. It may not always be rewarded as it ought; but it will always be known.

The heart has such an influence over the understanding, that it is worth while to engage it in our interest.

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

Nothing is more dissimilar than natural and acquired politeness. The first consists in a willing abnegation of self; the second in a compelled recollection of others.

Words are the dress of thoughts; which should no more be presented in rags, tatters, and dirt than your person should.