You shall not, for the sake of one individual, change the meaning of principle and integrity, nor endeavour to persuade yourself or me, that selfishness is prudence, and insensibility of danger, security for happiness.
There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil, a natural defect, which not even the best education can overcome.
Your retrospections must be so totally void of reproach, that the contentment arising from them, is not of philosophy, but what is much better, of ignorance.
What are men to rocks and mountains?
There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it.
Resignation is never so perfect as when the blessing denied begins to lose somewhat of its value in our estimation.
Nothing is more deceitful, than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast.
Indulge your imagination in every possible flight.
Affectation of candour is common enough; – one meets it every where. But to be candid without ostentation or design – to take the good of every body’s character and make it still better, and say nothing of the bad – belongs to you alone.
A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.
You judge very properly, and it is happy for you that you possess the talent of flattering with delicacy. May I ask whether these pleasing attentions proceed from the impulse of the moment, or are the result of previous study?
You expect me to account for opinions which you chuse to call mine, but which I have never acknowledged.
