If others surpass you in knowledge, in charm, in strength, in fortune, you have other causes to blame for it; but if you yield tothem in stoutness of heart you have only yourself to blame.

"Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation." -If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than it was because he was he and I was I.

For there is no air that men so greedily draw in, that diffuses itself so soon, and that penetrates so deep as that of license.

And I loathe people who find it harder to put up with a gown askew than with a soul askew and who judge a man by his bow, his bearing and his boots.

I am disgusted with innovation, in whatever guise, and with reason, for I have seen very harmful effects of it.

We should be similarly wary of accepting common opinions; we should judge them by the ways of reason not by popular vote.

It is easier to write an indifferent poem than to understand a good one.