Deference is the most complicate, the most indirect, and the most elegant of all compliments.

Love can be founded upon Nature only.

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.

A liar begins with making falsehood appear like truth, and ends with making truth itself appear like falsehood.

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.

May I always have a heart superior, with economy suitable, to my fortune.

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