It is by vivacity and wit that man shines in company; but trite jokes and loud laughter reduce him to a buffoon.

I would rather have a young fellow too much than too little dressed; the excess on that side will wear off, with a little age and reflection; but if he is negligent at twenty, he will be a sloven at forty, and stink at fifty years old. Dress yourself fine where others are fine, and plain where others are plain; but take care always that your clothes are well made and fit you, for otherwise they will give you a very awkward air.

The late Président de Montesquieu told me that he knew how to be blind--he had been so for such a long time--but I swear that I do not know how to be deaf: I cannot get used to it, and I am as humiliated and distressed by it today as I was during the first week. No philosophy in the world can palliate deafness.

A cheerful, easy, open countenance will make fools think you a good-natured man, and make designing men think you an undesigning one.

It seems to me that physical sickness softens, just as moral sickness hardens, the heart.

The most ignorant are the boldest conjecturers.

Do as you would be done by, is the surest method of pleasing.