Modesty makes large amends for the pain it gives those who labor under it, by the prejudice it affords every worthy person in their favor.

Glory relaxes often and debilitates the mind; censure stimulates and contracts,--both to an extreme. Simple fame is, perhaps, the proper medium.

Bashfulness is more frequently connected with good sense than we find assurance; and impudence, on the other hand, is often the mere effect of downright stupidity.

I hate a style, as I do a garden, that is wholly flat and regular; that slides along like an eel, and never rises to what one can call an inequality.

Virtues, like essences, lose their fragrance when exposed. They are sensitive plants, which will not bear too familiar approaches.

The fund of sensible discourse is limited; that of jest and badinerie is infinite.

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