In my time, the follies of the town crept slowly among us, but now they travel faster than a stagecoach.

Fancy restrained may be compared to a fountain, which plays highest by diminishing the aperture.

Conscience is a coward, and those faults it has not strength enough to prevent it seldom has justice enough to accuse.

A French woman is a perfect architect in dress: she never, with Gothic ignorance, mixes the orders; she never tricks out a snobby Doric shape with Corinthian finery; or, to speak without metaphor, she conforms to general fashion only when it happens not to be repugnant to private beauty.

Such dainties to them, their health it might hurt; It 's like sending them ruffles when wanting a shirt.

I have visited many countries, and have been in cities without number, yet never did I enter a town which could not produce ten or twelve little great men; all fancying themselves known to the rest of the world, and complimenting each other upon their extensive reputation.

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