Affectation is as necessary to the mind as dress is to the body.

People do not seem to talk for the sake of expressing their opinions, but to maintain an opinion for the sake of talking.

Every man, in his own opinion, forms an exception to the ordinary rules of morality.

Truth from the mouth of an honest man and severity from a good-natured man have a double effect.

Books are a world in themselves, it is true; but they are not the only world. The world itself is a volume larger than all the libraries in it.

The slaves of power mind the cause they have to serve, because their own interest is concerned; but the friends of liberty always sacrifice their cause, which is only the cause of humanity, to their own spleen, vanity, and self-opinion.

The difference between the vanity of a Frenchman and an Englishman seems to be this: the one thinks everything right that is French, the other thinks everything wrong that is not English.