"Too great refinement is false delicacy, and..." - Quote by Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“Reconciliation with our enemies is simply a desire to better our condition, a weariness of war, or the fear of some unlucky thing from occurring.”

“Idleness and constancy fix the mind to what it finds easy and agreeable. This habit always confines and cramps up our knowledge; and no one has ever taken the trouble to stretch and carry his understanding as far as it could go.”

“Our minds are as much given to laziness as our bodies.”

“A true politeness does not result from any hasty and artificial polishing, it is true, but grows naturally in characters of the right grain and quality, through a long fronting of men and events, and rubbing on good and bad fortune.”

“We surround ourselves with the true image of ourselves.”

“Knowing the bright, but clinging to the dark, you become a model to the world.”

“Twenty-four years ago I was strangely handsome; in San Francisco in the rainy season I was often mistaken for fair weather.”

“There is nothing so difficult to marry as a large nose.”

“There is no frontier between being and appearing.”