Never write down your speeches beforehand; if you do, you may perhaps be a good declaimer, but will never be a debater.

Ugliness is a letter of credit for some special purposes.

Without any extraordinary effort of genius, I have discovered that nature was the same three thousand years ago as at present; that men were but men then as well as now; that modes and customs vary often, but that human nature is always the same. And I can no more suppose, that men were better, braver, or wiser, fifteen hundred or three thousand years ago, than I can suppose that the animals or vegetables were better than they are now.

An honest man may really love a pretty girl, but only an idiot marries her merely because she is pretty.

Our own self-love draws a thick veil between us and our faults.

A vulgar man is captious and jealous; eager and impetuous about trifles. He suspects himself to be slighted, and thinks everything that is said meant at him.

Style is the dress of thoughts, and let them be ever so just.