“Life is the art of being well-deceived; and in order that the deception may succeed it must be habitual and uninterrupted.”

“The art of conversation is the art of hearing as well as of being heard.”

“The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure much.”

“The world loves to be amused by hollow professions, to be deceived by flattering appearances, to live in a state of hallucination; and can forgive everything but the plain, downright, simple, honest truth.”

“Perhaps the best cure for the fear of death is to reflect that life has a beginning as well as an end. There was a time when we were not: this gives us no concern. Why, then, should it trouble us that a time will come when we shall cease to be?”

“We are the creatures of imagination, passion, and self-will, more than of reason or even of self-interest. Even in the common transactions and daily intercourse of life, we are governed by whim, caprice, prejudice, or accident. The falling of a teacup puts us out of temper for the day; and a quarrel that commenced about the pattern of a gown may end only with our lives.”

“The best kind of conversation is that which may be called thinking aloud.”