Friendship is but another name for an alliance with the follies and the misfortunes of others. Our own share of miseries is sufficient: why enter then as volunteers into those of another?

We prefer war in all cases to tribute under any form and to any people whatever.

Take painsto write a neat round, plain hand, and you will find it a great convenience through life to write a small and compact hand as well as a fair and legible one.

Victory and defeat are each of the same price.

The ordinary affairs of a nation offer little difficulty to a person of any experience.

Female education ... has occupied my attention so far only as the education of my own daughters ... I thought it essential to give them a solid education which might enable them, when become mothers, to educate their own daughters, and even to direct the course for sons, should their fathers be.

I find that he is happiest of whom the world says least, good or bad.