When one can do better than everyone else in the same walk, one does not make any very painful exertions to outdo oneself. The progress of improvement ceases nearly at the point where competition ends.

What are the publications that succeed? Those that pretend to teach the public that the persons they have been accustomed unwittingly to look up to as the lights of the earth are no better than themselves.

We can scarcely hate anyone that we know.

Death puts an end to rivalship and competition. The dead can boast no advantage over us, nor can we triumph over them.

From the height from which the great look down on the world all the rest of mankind seem equal.

Grace is the absence of everything that indicates pain or difficulty, hesitation or incongruity.

Cowardice is not synonymous with prudence. It often happens that the better part of discretion is valor.