An orator can hardly get beyond commonplaces: if he does he gets beyond his hearers.

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.

Without life there can be no action — no objects of pursuit — no restless desires — no tormenting passions. Hence it is that we fondly cling to it — that we dread its termination as the close, not of enjoyment, but of hope.

Popularity is neither fame nor greatness.

Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects, and discovering other people's weaknesses.

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

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.