The most rational cure after all for the inordinate fear of death is to set a just value on life.

Sincerity has to do with the connexion between our words and thoughts, and not between our beliefs and actions.

Taste is nothing but an enlarged capacity for receiving pleasure from works of imagination.

The smallest pain in our little finger gives us more concern than the destruction of millions of our fellow beings.

The more we do, the more we can do; the more busy we are, the more leisure we have.

A man's reputation is not in his own keeping, but lies at the mercy of the profligacy of others. Calumny requires no proof. The throwing out [of] malicious imputations against any character leaves a stain, which no after-refutation can wipe out. To create an unfavorable impression, it is not necessary that certain things should be true, but that they have been said. The imagination is of so delicate a texture that even words wound it.

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.