Repose is as necessary in conversation as in a picture.

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

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.

...greatness sympathises with greatness, and littleness shrinks into itself.

The look of a gentleman is little else than the reflection of the looks of the world.

When you find out a man's ruling passion, beware of crossing him in it.

We may be willing to tell a story twice, never to hear it more than once.