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.

Grandeur and beauty are so very opposite, that you often diminish the one as you increase the other. Variety is most akin to the latter, simplicity to the former.

The proper means of increasing the love we bear our native country is to reside some time in a foreign one.

There would not be any absolute necessity for reserve if the world were honest; yet even then it would prove expedient. For, in order to attain any degree of deference, it seems necessary that people should imagine you have more accomplishments than you discover.

What leads to unhappiness is making pleasure the chief aim.

Zealous men are ever displaying to you the strength of their belief. while judicious men are showing you the grounds of it.

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