Social intercourse, even friendship among most people, is a merely a business arrangement that lasts only so long as there is need.

Everyone is so caught up in his own passions and interests that he always wants to talk about them without getting involved in the passions and interests of those to whom he speaks, although his listeners have the same need for others to listen to and help them.

It is an admirable skill to able to sweeten a refusal with civil words which atone for the favor which we are not able to grant.

We learn as much by others' failings as by their teachings. Examples of imperfection is just as useful for achieving perfection as are models of competence and perfection.

Sometimes we praise the way things used to be in order to blame the present, and we esteem what is no longer in order to scorn what is.

It is sometimes useful to pretend we are deceived, because when we show a deceiving man that we see through his artifices, we only encourage him to increase his deceptions.

We would often rather seem dutiful to others than to succeed in our duties; and often we would rather tell our friends that we have done them good than to do good in actuality.