He that can carp in the most eloquent or acute manner at the weakness of the human mind is held by his fellows as almost divine.

Academies that are founded at public expense are instituted not so much to cultivate men's natural abilities as to restrain them.

Hatred is increased by being reciprocated, and can on the other hand be destroyed by love.

Indulge yourself in pleasures only in so far as they are necessary for the preservation of health.

If a man had begun to hate an object of his love, so that love is thoroughly destroyed, he will, causes being equal, regard it with more hatred than if he had never loved it, and his hatred will be in proportion to the strength of his former love.

Those who are believed to be most abject and humble are usually most ambitious and envious.

Surely human affairs would be far happier if the power in men to be silent were the same as that to speak. But experience more than sufficiently teaches that men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues.