Temptations come, as a general rule, when they are sought.

there are some people who never learn; indeed, few people learn by experience, so far as I have ever seen.

every generation has a conceit of itself which elevates it, in its own opinion, above that which comes after it.

All perfection is melancholy.

To have a man who can flirt is next thing to indispensable to a leader of society.

Laughing is not the first expression of joy. ... A person laughs in idleness, for fun, not for joy. Joy has nothing, nothing but the old way of tears.

The middle of life is the testing-ground of character and strength.