The discussing the characters and foibles of common friends is a great sweetness and cement of friendship.

One truth discovered, one pang of regret at not being able to express it, is better than all the fluency and flippancy in the world.

A great mind is one that can forget or look beyond itself.

The humblest painter is a true scholar; and the best of scholars the scholar of nature.

Features alone do not run in the blood; vices and virtues, genius and folly, are transmitted through the same sure but unseen channel.

A certain excess of animal spirits with thoughtless good-humor will often make more enemies than the most deliberate spite and ill-nature, which is on its guard, and strikes with caution and safety.

No one ever approaches perfection except by stealth, and unknown to themselves.