The lowest people are generally the first to find fault with show or equipage; especially that of a person lately emerged from his obscurity. They never once consider that he is breaking the ice for themselves.

Immoderate assurance is perfect licentiousness.

The works of a person that begin immediately to decay, while those of him who plants begin directly to improve. In this, planting promises a more lasting pleasure than building; which, were it to remain in equal perfection, would at best begin to moulder and want repairs in imagination. Now trees have a circumstance that suits our taste, and that is annual variety.

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

I know not whether increasing years do not cause us to esteem fewer people and to bear with more.

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

Learning, like money, may be of so base a coin as to be utterly void of use.