Doubt is the vestibule through which all must pass before they can enter into the temple of wisdom.

Contemporaries appreciate the person rather than their merit, posterity will regard the merit rather than the person.

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.

Anger is practical awkwardness.

Men pursue riches under the idea that their possession will set them at ease, and above the world. But the law of association often makes those who begin by loving gold as a servant finish by becoming themselves its slaves; and independence without wealth is at least as common as wealth without independence.

No company is preferable to bad. We are more apt to catch the vices of others than virtues, as disease is far more contagious than health.

He that is gone so far as to cut the claws of the lion, will not feel himself quite secure, until he has also drawn his teeth.