You must not contrast too strongly the hours of courtship with the years of possession.
We can know nothing of humankind without knowing something of ourselves. Self-knowledge is the property of those people whose passions have their full play, but who ponder over their results.
My objection to Liberalism is this that it is the introduction into the practical business of life of the highest kind namely, politics of philosophical ideas instead of political principles.
The test of political institutions is the condition of the country whose future they regulate.
A sophisticated rhetorician, inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity.
More pernicious nonsense was never devised by man than treaties of commerce.
The stage is a supplement to the pulpit, where virtue, according to Plato’s sublime idea, moves our love and affection when made visible to the eye.
I pride myself in recognizing and upholding ability in every party and wherever I meet it.
Literature is an avenue to glory, ever open for those ingenious men who are deprived of honors or of wealth.
I do not like giving advice: it is incurring an unnecessary responsibility.
There is no greater sin than to be trop prononce.
Expediency is a law of nature. The camel is a wonderful animal, but the desert made the camel.
Great men never require experience.
Extreme views are never just; something always turns up which disturbs the calculations formed upon their data.
Quit the world, and the world forgets you.
Female friendships are of rapid growth.
Enthusiasm is the breath of genius.
Friendship is the gift of the gods, and the most precious boon to man.
I think there is nothing more lovely than the love of two beautiful women who are not envious of each other’s charms.
The girl of the period sets up to be natural, and is only rude; mistakes insolence for innocence; says everything that comes first to her lips, and thinks she is gay when she is only giddy.