An ambassador is not simply an agent; he is also a spectacle.

Credit means that a certain confidence is given, and a certain trust reposed. Is that trust justified? And is that confidence wise? These are the cardinal questions. To put it more simply credit is a set of promises to pay; will those promises be kept?

The greatest mistake is trying to be more agreeable than you can be.

A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.

The real essence of work is concentrated energy - people who really have that in a superior degree by nature are independent of the forms and habits and artifices by which less able and less active people are kept up to their labors.

An element of exaggeration clings to the popular judgment: great vices are made greater, great virtues greater also; interesting incidents are made more interesting, softer legends more soft.

The being without an opinion is so painful to human nature that most people will leap to a hasty opinion rather than undergo it.