Men become friends by a community of pleasures.
Men who stand in the highest ranks of society seldom hear of their faults; if by any accident an opprobrious clamour reaches their ears, flattery is always at hand to pour in her opiates, to quiet conviction and obtund remorse.
Tediousness is the most fatal of all faults.
Virtue is too often merely local.
Spite and ill-nature are among the most expensive luxuries in life.
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.