Weak men often from the very principle of their weakness derive a certain susceptibility; delicacy and taste which render them, in those particulars, much superior to men of stronger and more consistent minds, who laugh at them.

Some characters are like some bodies in chemistry; very good, perhaps, in themselves, yet fly off and refuse the least conjunction with each other.

A lively and agreeable man has not only the merit of liveliness and agreeableness himself, but that also of awakening them in others.

I hardly know so melancholy a reflection as that parents are necessarily the sole directors of the management of children, whether they have or have not judgment, penetration or taste to perform the task.

As charity covers a multitude of sins before God, so does politeness before men.

The world is an excellent judge in general, but a very bad one in particular.

Our companions please us less from the charms we find in their conversation than from those they find in ours.