 Too great haste to repay an obligation is a kind of ingratitude. |
| He is not to pass for a man of reason who stumbles upon reason by chance but he who knows it and can judge it and has a true taste for it. |
| As one grows older, one becomes wiser and more foolish. |
| Conceit causes more conversation than wit. |
| On neither the sun, nor death, can a man look fixedly. |
| Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires. |
| Perfect valour consists in doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone. |
| The only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us. |
| Self-interest makes some people blind, and others sharp-sighted. |
| We confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no large ones. |
| The defects and faults of the mind are like wounds in the body; after all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up, still there will be a scar left behind, and they are in continual danger of breaking the skin and bursting out again. |
| Men often pass from love to ambition, but they seldom come back again from ambition to love. |
| As great minds have the faculty of saying a great deal in a few words, so lesser minds have a talent of talking much, and saying nothing. |
| We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it. |
| There is no better proof of a man's being truly good than his desiring to be constantly under the observation of good men. |
| Those who are incapable of committing great crimes do not readily suspect them in others. |
| The moderation of people in prosperity is the effect of a smooth and composed temper, owing to the calm of their good fortune. |
| We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves. |
| We are strong enough to bear the misfortunes of others. |
| A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire. |
