The “point of honour” can often be made to produce, by means of vanity, as many good deeds as virtue. More evil truths are discovered by the corruption of the heart than by the penetration of the mind. Beauty, devoid of grace, is a mere hook without the bait. Schismatic wranglers are like a child’s top, noisy and agitated when whipped, quiet and motionless when left alone. He who cannot feel friendship is alike incapable of love. Let a woman beware of the man who owns that he loves no one but herself. The rich man despises those who flatter him too much, and hates those who do not flatter him at all. The spirit and enterprise of a courtier are all expended in the search after place and preferment; nothing remains for the fulfilment of the duties to which success compels him. The Count de Coigny possesses wit and talent, but his conversation is fatiguing, because his memory is equally exact in quoting the date of the death of Alexander the Great and that of the Princess de Guéménée’s poodle. My passion for Madame de Talleyrand was soon extinguished, because she was merely possessed of beauty. The influence of personal charms is limited: curiosity forms the great ingredient of this kind of love; but add the fascination of intellect to those attractions which habit and possession diminish each day, you will find them multiplied tenfold; and if, besides intellect and beauty, you discover in your mistress caprice, singularity, and inequality of temper, close your eyes and seek no further—you are in love for life. The imagination of men is often the refuge of their prejudices. To contradict and argue with a total stranger, is like knocking at a gate to ascertain if there is any one within. That sovereign has a little mind who seeks to go down to posterity by means of great public buildings. It is to confide to masons and bricklayers the task of writing History. Love is a reality which is born in the fairy region of romance. The love of glory can only create a hero; the contempt of it creates a great man. The mind of the Duc de Laval is like a dark lanthorn, only capable of lighting his own path. The errors of great men, and the good deeds of reprobates, should not be reckoned in our estimates of their respective characters. A court is an assemblage of noble and distinguished beggars. Theologians resemble dogs, that gnaw large bones for the sake of a very little meat. The stream of vice will flow as naturally into palaces, as the common sewer flows into the river, and the river flows onward to the sea. It is sometimes quite enough for a man to feign ignorance of that which he knows, to gain the reputation of knowing that of which he is ignorant. A long continuance of wise administration is the best and surest means of arriving at despotism. Our present government gives us no alarm. Both erudition and agriculture ought to be encouraged by government; wit and manufactures will come of themselves.