"We seldom find ourselves in a large party without thinking; the accident which brings so many here together, should bring our friends to us as well."
"Let us live in as small a circle as we will, we are either debtors or creditors before we have had time to look round."
"If we meet a person who is under an obligation to us, we remember it immediately. But how often may we meet people to whom we are, ourselves, under obligation, without its even occurring to us!"
"It is nature to communicate one's-self; it is culture to receive what is communicated as it is given."
"No one would talk much in society, if he only knew how often he misunderstands others."
"One alters so much what one has heard from others in repeating it, only because one has not understood it."
"Whoever indulges long in monologue in the presence of others, without flattering his listeners, provokes ill-will."
"Every word a man utters provokes the opposite opinion."
"Argument and flattery are but poor elements out of which to form a conversation."
"The pleasantest society is when the members of it have an easy and natural respect for one another."