“Hint at the existence of wickedness in a light, easy, and agreeable manner, so that nobody’s fine feelings may be offended.”

Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.

I believe that remorse is the least active of all a man’s moral senses.

The pipe draws wisdom from the lips of the philosopher, and shuts up the mouth of the foolish; it generates a style of conversation, contemplative, thoughtful, benevolent, and unaffected.

A person can’t help their birth.

People who do not know how to laugh are always pompous and self-conceited.

Frequent the company of your betters.

Bravery never goes out of fashion.

In the midst of friends, home, and kind parents, she was alone.

Next to eating good dinners, a healthy man with a benevolent turn of mind, must like, I think, to read about them.

There is a skeleton in every house.

Under the magnetism of friendship the modest man becomes bold; the shy, confident; the lazy, active; and the impetuous, prudent and peaceful.

Money has only a different value in the eyes of each.

Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?

If thou hast never been a fool, be sure thou wilt never be a wise man.

Next to excellence is the appreciation of it.

The moral world has no particular objection to vice, but an insuperable repugnance to hearing vice called by its proper name.

Basically, Herman van Rompuy wants the European Union to become a debt union, which may be acceptable to some of the southern countries who are effectively bust. To the northern countries, it is not.

No deals with the Tories; it’s war.

Before, Europe was about treaties, laws and our sovereign right to govern ourselves. Now, it’s about everyday lives.

What we are now doing with the victory, and I agree with you if you condemn that and I condemn whole-heartedly the trivial bullshit it is to go after a man who makes a scientific breakthrough and all that we as women — organized women — do is to fret about his shirt?

What I find daunting always is to stand on a stage and talk to people, whether they agree with me or not.

How we navigate between false agreement and polarization is the kind of mastery that collective wisdom represents.

When ordinary Soviet citizens are told that a vital trade agreement awarding their country most-favoured-nation status with the US is being blocked in Congress because Soviet Jews are demanding.

Our characterization of collective folly is that sound judgment is not feasible when there is forced or false agreement in groups.