It is an easy and vulgar thing to please the mob, and not a very arduous task to astonish them; but essentially to benefit and to improve them is a work fraught with difficulty, and teeming with danger.

Mental pleasures never cloy; unlike those of the body, they are increased by reputation, approved by reflection, and strengthened by enjoyment.

The mistakes of the fool are known to the world, but not to himself. The mistakes of the wise man are known to himself, but not to the world.

Men of great and shining qualities do not always succeed in life, but the fault lies more often in themselves than in others.

Were we as eloquent as angels we still would please people much more by listening rather than talking.

Gold is worshipped in all climates, without a single temple, and by all classes, without a single hypocrite.

Tyrants have not yet discovered any chains that can fetter the mind.