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

Prudent men lock up their motives, letting familiars have a key to their hearts, as to their garden.

A person that would secure to himself great deference will, perhaps, gain his point by silence as effectually as by anything he can say.

People can commend the weather without envy.

There is nothing more universally commended than a fine day; the reason is that people can commend it without envy.

Jealousy is the fear or apprehension of superiority: envy our uneasiness under it.

In a heavy oppressive atmosphere, when the spirits sink too low, the best cordial is to read over all the letters of one's friends.