Friendship is seldom lasting but between equals, or where the superiority on one side is reduced by some equivalent advantage on the other.

Instead of rating the man by his performances, we rate too frequently the performances by the man.

Misfortunes should always be expected.

I know not, Madam, that you have a right, upon moral principles, to make your readers suffer so much.

There must always be some advantage on one side or the other, and it is better that advantage should be had by talents than by chance.

Novelty is indeed necessary to preserve eagerness and alacrity; but art and nature have stores inexhaustible by human intellects, and every moment produces something new to him who has quickened his faculties by diligent observation.

Happiness consists in the multiplicity of agreeable consciousness.