True wit, to every man, is that which falls on another.

When the mind loses its feeling for elegance, it grows corrupt and groveling, and seeks in the crowd what ought to be found at home.

As there are some flowers which you should smell but slightly to extract all that is pleasant in them ... so there are some men with whom a slight acquaintance is quite sufficient to draw out all that is agreeable; a more intimate one would be unsafe and unsatisfactory.

My thoughts are my company; I can bring them together, select them, detain them, dismiss them.

Wrong is but falsehood put in practice.

Men universally are ungrateful towards him who instructs them, unless, in the hours or in the intervals of instruction, he presents a sweet-cake to their self-love.

It is delightful to kiss the eyelashes of the beloved--is it not? But never so delightful as when fresh tears are on them.