The contemplation of truth and beauty is the proper object for which we were created, which calls forth the most intense desires of the soul, and of which it never tires.

We often choose a friend as we do a mistress - for no particular excellence in themselves, but merely from some circumstance that flatters our self-love.

The safest kind of praise is to foretell that another will become great in some particular way. It has the greatest show of magnanimity and the least of it in reality.

We find many things to which the prohibition of them constitutes the only temptation.

The art of pleasing consists in being pleased.

Fashion is gentility running away from vulgarity and afraid of being overtaken

The person whose doors I enter with most pleasure, and quit with most regret, never did me the smallest favor.