I love everything that's old, - old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine.

Ceremonies are different in every country, but true politeness is everywhere the same.

He cast off his friends as a huntsman his pack, For he knew when he pleas'd he could whistle them back.

The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them.

There is nothing so absurd or ridiculous that has not at some time been said by some philosopher. Fontenelle says he would undertake to persuade the whole public of readers to believe that the sun was neither the cause of light or heat, if he could only get six philosophers on his side.

Ridicule has even been the most powerful enemy of enthusiasm, and properly the only antagonist that can be opposed to it with success.

Is it that Nature, attentive to the preservation of mankind, increases our wishes to live, while she lessens our enjoyments, and as she robs the senses of every pleasure, equips imag-ination in the spoil?