The excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare or abstruse sentiment, as in the comprehension of some useful truth in a few words.

Admiration and love are like being intoxicated with champagne; judgment and friendship are like being enlivened.

Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity. It becomes cheap as it becomes vulgar, and will no longer raise expectation or animate enterprise.

A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority.

In sovereignty there are no gradations.

It is wonderful to think how men of very large estates not only spend their yearly income, but are often actually in want of money. It is clear, they have not value for what they spend.

A translator is to be like his author; it is not his business to excel him.