An honest man speaks the truth, though it may give offence; a vain man, in order that it may.
A person who talks with equal vivacity on every subject, excites no interest in any. Repose is as necessary in conversation as in a picture.
There is no prejudice so strong as that which arises from a fancied exemption from all prejudice.
There are only three pleasures in life pure and lasting, and all derived from inanimate things-books, pictures and the face of nature.
Mankind are a herd of knaves and fools. It is necessary to join the crowd, or get out of their way, in order not to be trampled to death by them.
The ignorance of the world leaves one at the mercy of its malice.
While we desire, we do not enjoy; and with enjoyment desire ceases.
Power is pleasure; and pleasure sweetens pain.
The only impeccable writers are those who never wrote.
Prejudice is never easy unless it can pass itself off for reason.
We never do anything well till we cease to think about the manner of doing it. This is the reason why it is so difficult for any but natives to speak a language correctly or idiomatically.
The multitude who require to be led, still hate their leaders.
A life of action and danger moderates the dread of death.
He who expects from a great name in politics, in philosophy, in art, equal greatness in other things, is little versed in human nature. Our strength lies in our weakness. The learned in books are ignorant of the world. He who is ignorant of books is often well acquainted with other things; for life is of the same length in the learned and unlearned; the mind cannot be idle; if it is not taken up with one thing, it attends to another through choice or necessity; and the degree of previous capacity in one class or another is a mere lottery.
He is a hypocrite who professes what he does not believe; not he who does not practice all he wishes or approves.
The devil was a great loss in the preternatural world. He was always something to fear and to hate; he supplied the antagonist powers of the imagination, and the arch of true religion hardly stands firm without him.
To great evils we submit, we resent little provocations.
Actors are the only honest hypocrites.
Those who are fond of setting things to rights, have no great objection to seeing them wrong.
A man's reputation is not in his own keeping, but lies at the mercy of the profligacy of others. Calumny requires no proof. The throwing out [of] malicious imputations against any character leaves a stain, which no after-refutation can wipe out. To create an unfavorable impression, it is not necessary that certain things should be true, but that they have been said. The imagination is of so delicate a texture that even words wound it.
Landscape painting is the obvious resource of misanthropy.
Silence is one great art of conversation.
A thought must tell at once, or not at all.
He who draws upon his own resources easily comes to an end of his wealth.
By retaliating our sufferings on the heads of those we love, we get rid of a present uneasiness and incur lasting remorse. With the accomplishment of our revenge our fondness returns; so that we feel the injury we have done them, even more than they do.
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