Natural affection is a prejudice; for though we have cause to love our nearest connections better than others, we have no reason to think them better than others.

Pride is founded not on the sense of happiness, but on the sense of power.

A woman's vanity is interested in making the object of her choice the god of her idolatry.

The art of conversation is the art of hearing as well as of being heard.

Without the aid of prejudice and custom, I should not be able to find my way across the room.

Reflection brakes men cowards. There is no object that can be put in competition with life, unless it is viewed through the medium of passion, and we are hurried away by the impulse of the moment.

We do not die wholly at our deaths: we have mouldered away gradually long before. Faculty after faculty, interest after interest, attachment after attachment disappear: we are torn from ourselves while living.