We speak but little when vanity does not make us speak.
A spirit of confidence helps on conversation more than brilliance of mind does.
True eloquence consists of saying all that is necessary, and nothing more.
A man may be witty and still be a fool; judgment is the source of wisdom.
A man does not please for very long when he has but one kind of wit.
It is a mistake to imagine that wit and judgment are two distinct things; judgment is only the perfection of wit, which pierces into the recesses of things and there perceives what from the outside seems to be imperceptible.
A man of intelligence would often be at a loss were it not for the company of fools.
It is not so much fertility of mind that leads us to discover many expedients in regard to a single matter, as a defect of intelligence, that makes us stop at everything presented to our imagination, and hinders us from discerning at once which is the best course.
Some old men like to give good advice to console themselves for being no longer in a state to give a bad example.
No man of sound good sense strikes us as such unless he is of our way of thinking.