Circumstances form the character; but, like petrifying matters, they harden while they form.

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.

I never did a single wise thing in the whole course of my existence, although I have written many which have been thought so.

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.

O what a thing is age! Death without death's quiet.

Goodness does not more certainly make men happy than happiness makes them good.

We oftener say things because we can say them well, than because they are sound and reasonable.