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.

Courtesy and good-humour are often found with little real worth.

The seeds of knowledge may be planted in solitude, but must be cultivated in public.

To use two languages familiarly and without contaminating one by the other, is very difficult; and to use more than two is hardly to be hoped. The prizes which some have received for their multiplicity of languages may be sufficient to excite industry, but can hardly generate confidence.

The wise man applauds he who he thinks most virtuous; the rest of the world applauds the wealthy.

Affectation naturally counterfeits those excellences which are placed at the greatest distance from possibility of attainment, because, knowing our own defects, we eagerly endeavor to supply them with artificial excellence.

If we will have the kindness of others, we must endure their follies.