Order in a house ought to be like the machinery in opera, whose effect produces great pleasure, but whose ends must be hid.

Elegance is exquisite polish.

The most subtle flattery that a woman can receive is by actions, not by words.

In looking around me seeking for miserable resources against the heaviness of time, I open a book and I say to myself, as the cat to the fox: I have only one good turn, but I need no other.

It were no virtue to bear calamities if we did not feel them.

Our own cast-off sorrows are not sufficient to constitute sympathy for others.

You may be more prodigal of time than of money.