Elegance is something more than ease; it is more than a freedom from awkwardness or restraint. It implies, I conceive, a precision, a polish, a sparkling, spirited yet delicate.

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

The rule for traveling abroad is to take our common sense with us, and leave our prejudices behind.

That which is not, shall never be; that which is, shall never cease to be. To the wise, these truths are self-evident.

If you give an audience a chance they will do half your acting for you.

Of all virtues, magnanimity is the rarest. There are a hundred persons of merit for one who willingly acknowledges it in another.

We do not like our friends the worse because they sometimes give us an opportunity to rail at them heartily. Their faults reconcile us to their virtues.