Virtues, like essences, lose their fragrance when exposed.

Some men are called sagacious, merely on account of their avarice; whereas a child can clench its fist the moment it is born.

Long sentences in a short composition are like large rooms in a little house.

Flattery of the verbal kind is gross. In short, applause is of too coarse a nature to be swallowed in the gross, though the extract or tincture be ever so agreeable.

A large, branching, aged oak is perhaps the most venerable of all inanimate objects.

I know not whether increasing years do not cause us to esteem fewer people and to bear with more.

The best time to frame an answer to the letters of a friend, is the moment you receive them. Then the warmth of friendship, and the intelligence received, most forcibly cooperate.