A man often runs the risk of throwing away a witticism if he admits that it is his own.
Jesting, often, only proves a want of intellect. [Fr., La moquerie est souvent une indigence d'esprit.]
The generality of men expend the early part of their lives in contributing to render the latter part miserable.
Rarely do they appear great before their valets. [Fr., Rarement ils sont grands vis-a-vis de leur valets-de-chambre.]
Some young people do not sufficiently understand the advantages of natural charms, and how much they would gain by trusting to them entirely. They weaken these gifts of heaven, so rare and fragile, by affected manners and an awkward imitation. Their tones and their gait are borrowed; they study their attitudes before the glass until they have lost all trace of natural manner, and, with all their pains, they please but little.
It is a proof of boorishness to confer a favor with a bad grace; it is the act of giving that is hard and painful. How little does a smile cost?
Wit is the god of moments, but Genius is the god of ages.
We must strive to make ourselves really worthy of some employment. We need pay no attention to anything else; the rest is the business of others.
We trust our secrets to our friends, but they escape from us in love.
When life is unhappy it is hard to endure, when it is happy it is terrible to think of it ending. Both amount to the same thing in the end.
Cunning is none of the best nor worst qualities; it floats between virtue and vice; there is scarce any exigence where it may not, and perhaps ought not to be supplied by prudence.
A coxcomb is the blockhead's man of merit.
All the world says of a coxcomb that he is a coxcomb; but no one dares to say so to his face, and he dies without knowing it.
Intelligence is to genius as the whole is in proportion to its part. [Fr., Entre esprit et talent il y a la proportion du tout a sa partie.]
It is very rare to find ground which produces nothing; if it is not covered with flowers, with fruit trees and grains, it produces briers and pines. It is the same with man; if he is not virtuous, he becomes vicious.
We dread old age, which are not sure of being able to attain. [Fr., L'on craint la vieillesse, que l'on n'est pas sur de pouvoir atteindre.]
A woman with eyes only for one person, or with eyes always averted from him, creates exactly the same impression.
Men make the best friends.
A heap of epithets is poor praise: the praise lies in the facts, and in the way of telling them.
The very essence of politeness seems to be to take care that by our words and actions we make other people pleased with us as well as with themselves.
Love, slow and gradual in its growth, is too much like friendship ever to be a violent passion.
Life is a kind of sleep: old men sleep longest, nor begin to wake but when they are to die.
When a secret is revealed, it is the fault of the man who confided it.
A guilty man is punished as an example for the mob; an innocent man convicted is the business of every honest citizen.
Languages are the keys of science.
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