In what we really understand, we reason but little.

Weakness has its hidden resources, as well as strength. There is a degree of folly and meanness which we cannot calculate upon, and by which we are as much liable to be foiled as by the greatest ability or courage.

Learning is its own exceeding great reward.

Rules and models destroy genius and art.

The difference between the vanity of a Frenchman and an Englishman seems to be this: the one thinks everything right that is French, the other thinks everything wrong that is not English.

If we are long absent from our friends, we forget them; if we are constantly with them, we despise them.

They are the only honest hypocrites, their life is a voluntary dream, a studied madness.