The perfection of art is to conceal art. Quinct. 25
The perfection of conversation is not to play a regular sonata, but, like the Æolian harp, to await the inspiration of the passing breeze. Burke.
The perfection of spiritual virtue lies in being always all there, a whole man present in every movement and moment. Ed.
The period of faith must alternate with the period of denial; the vernal growth, the summer luxuriance of all opinions, spiritual representations and creations must be followed by, and again follow, the autumnal decay, the winter dissolution. Carlyle.
The persistent aspirations of the human race are to society what the compass is to the ship. It sees not the shore, but it guides to it. Lamartine.
The person who in company should pretend 30 to be wiser than others, I am apt to regard as illiterate and ill-bred. Goldsmith.
The person who is contented to be often obliged ought not to be obliged at all. Goldsmith.
The person whose clothes are extremely fine I am too apt to consider as not being possessed of any superiority of fortune, but resembling those Indians who were found to wear all the gold they have in the world in a bob at the nose. Goldsmith.
The pest of society is egotists. There are dull and bright, sacred and profane, coarse and fine egotists. It is a disease that, like influenza, falls on all constitutions. Emerson.
The philosopher is he to whom the highest has descended, and the lowest has mounted up; who is the equal and kindly brother of all. Carlyle.