Deference often shrinks and withers as much upon the approach of intimacy as the sensitive plant does upon the touch of one's finger.

We may daily discover crowds acquire sufficient wealth to buy gentility, but very few that possess the virtues which ennoble human nature, and (in the best sense of the word) constitute a gentleman.

Let us be careful to distinguish modesty, which is ever amiable, from reserve, which is only prudent.

Some men use no other means to acquire respect than by insisting on it; and it sometimes answers their purpose, as it does a highwayman's in regard to money.

A man has generally the good or ill qualities which he attributes to mankind.

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

The lines of poetry, the period of prose, and even the texts of Scripture most frequently recollected and quoted, are those which are felt to be preeminently musical.