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.

Men are sometimes accused of pride, merely because their accusers would be proud themselves were they in their places.

Second thoughts oftentimes are the very worst of all thoughts.

A rich dress adds but little to the beauty of a person. It may possibly create a deference, but that is rather an enemy to love.

Anger and the thirst of revenge are a kind of fever; fighting and lawsuits, bleeding,--at least, an evacuation. The latter occasions a dissipation of money; the former, of those fiery spirits which cause a preternatural fermentation.

Amid the most mercenary ages it is but a secondary sort of admiration that is bestowed upon magnificence.

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