Some indeed there are who profess to despise all flattery, but even these are nevertheless to be flattered, by being told that they do despise it.

Some frauds succeed from the apparent candor, the open confidence, and the full blaze of ingenuousness that is thrown around them. The slightest mystery would excite suspicion and ruin all. Such stratagems may be compared to the stars; they are discoverable by darkness and hidden only by light.

A coxcomb begins by determining that his own profession is the first; and he finishes by deciding that he is the first of profession.

The science of legislation is like that of medicine in one respect: that it is far more easy to point out what will do harm than what will do good.

Riches may enable us to confer favors, but to confer them with propriety and grace requires a something that riches cannot give.

Power will intoxicate the best hearts, as wine the strongest heads. No man is wise enough, nor good enough to be trusted with unlimited power.

Be very slow to believe that you are wiser than all others; it is a fatal but common error. Where one has been saved by a true estimation of another's weakness, thousands have been destroyed by a false appreciation of their own strength.