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

We grow tired of ourselves, much more of other people.

Humour is the making others act or talk absurdly and unconsciously; wit is the pointing out and ridiculing that absurdity consciously, and with more or less ill-nature.

Believe all the good you can of everyone. Do not measure others by yourself. If they have advantages which you have not, let your liberality keep pace with their good fortune. Envy no one, and you need envy no one.

People of genius do not excel in any profession because they work in it, they work in it because they excel.

The ignorance of the world leaves one at the mercy of its malice.

The Irish are hearty, the Scotch plausible, the French polite, the Germans good-natured, the Italians courtly, the Spaniards reserved and decorous - the English alone seem to exist in taking and giving offense.