Those that have had great passions esteem themselves for the rest of their lives fortunate and unfortunate in being cured of them.
Nothing is so contagious as example and we never do any great good or evil which does not produce its like.
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.
In friendship as well as love, ignorance very often contributes more to our happiness than knowledge.
However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship.
There are no accidents so unlucky from which clever people are not able to reap some advantage and none so lucky that the foolish are not able to turn them to their own disadvantage.
When we disclaim praise, it is only showing our desire to be praised a second time.
Most people know no other way of judging men's worth but by the vogue they are in, or the fortunes they have met with.
Those who are incapable of committing great crimes do not readily suspect them in others.
We may seem great in an employment below our worth, but we very often look little in one that is too big for us.
It is a great act of cleverness to be able to conceal one's being clever.
Few things are impracticable in themselves and it is for want of application, rather than of means, that men fail to succeed.
Though nature be ever so generous, yet can she not make a hero alone. Fortune must contribute her part too and till both concur, the work cannot be perfected.
In most of mankind gratitude is merely a secret hope of further favors.
However greatly we distrust the sincerity of those we converse with, yet still we think they tell more truth to us than to anyone else.
What seems to be generosity is often no more than disguised ambition, which overlooks a small interest in order to secure a great one.
There is a kind of elevation which does not depend on fortune it is a certain air which distinguishes us, and seems to destine us for great things it is a price which we imperceptibly set upon ourselv...