The corruption of man is followed by the corruption of language. ... In due time, the fraud is manifest, and words lose all power to stimulate the understanding or the affections.

The senses interfere everywhere, and mix their own structure with all they report of.

It is a tie between men to have read the same book.

The mind does not create what it perceives, any more than the eye creates the rose.

The condition which high friendship demands is ability to do without it.

There is no one who does not exaggerate. In conversation, men are encumbered with personality, and talk too much.

Wise men are not wise at all hours, and will speak five times from their taste or their humor, to once from their reason.