Features alone do not run in the blood; vices and virtues, genius and folly, are transmitted through the same sure but unseen channel.

The way to secure success is to be more anxious about obtaining than about deserving it.

Grace in women has more effect than beauty. We sometimes see a certain fine self-possession, an habitual voluptuousness of character, which reposes on its own sensations and derives pleasure from all around it, that is more irresistible than any other attraction. There is an air of languid enjoyment in such persons, "in their eyes, in their arms, and their hands, and their face," which robs us of ourselves, and draws us by a secret sympathy towards them.

Horus non numero nisi serenas (I count only the sunny hours).

Art is the microscope of the mind, which sharpens the wit as the other does the sight; and converts every object into a little universe in itself. Art may be said to draw aside the veil from nature. To those who are perfectly unskilled in the practice, unimbued with the principles of art, most objects present only a confused mass.

There is an unseemly exposure of the mind, as well as of the body.

We are never so much disposed to quarrel with others as when we are dissatisfied with ourselves.