Man (in good earnest) is a marvellous vain, fickle, and unstable subject, and on whom it is very hard to form any certain and uniform judgment.

Nature should have been pleased to have made this age miserable, without making it also ridiculous.

When I quote others I do so in order to express my own ideas more clearly.

God sends the cold according to the coat.

No man is so exquisitely honest or upright in living, but that ten times in his life he might not lawfully be hanged.

Why did I love her? Because it was her; because it was me.

It takes strong ears indeed to hear ourselves judged frankly, and because there are few who can endure criticism without being stung by it, those who venture to criticize us perform a remarkable act of friendship. For it is a healthy love that will risk wounding or offending in order to profer a benefit.