Since the generality of persons act from impulse, much more than from principle, men are neither so good nor so bad as we are apt to think them.

What hypocrites we seem to be whenever we talk of ourselves! Our words sound so humble, while our hearts are so proud.

Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.

It is well for us that we are born babies in intellect. Could we understand half what mothers say and do to their infants, we should be filled with a conceit of our own importance, which would render us insupportable through life.

Many are ambitious of saying grand things, that is, of being grandiloquent.

Crimes sometimes shock us too much; vices almost always too little.

Nothing is farther than earth from heaven; nothing is nearer than heaven to earth.