People are lucky and unlucky not according to what they get absolutely, but according to the ratio between what they get and what they have been led to expect.

The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore.

Letters are like wine; if they are sound they ripen with keeping. A man should lay down letters as he does a cellar of wine.

Virtue knows that it is impossible to get on without compromise, and tunes herself, as it were, a trifle sharp to allow for an inevitable fall in playing.

Let man be true and every god a liar.

Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only.

People care more about being thought to have taste than about being thought either good, clever or amiable.