The good or the bad fortune of men depends not less upon their own dispositions than upon fortune.

There is only one kind of love, but there are a thousand imitations.

We do not like to praise, and seldom praise anyone without self-interest.

We should desire very few things passionately if we did but perfectly know the nature of the things we desire.

The greater part of mankind judge of men only by their fashionableness or their fortune.

It is easier for a man to be thought fit for an employment that he has not, than for one he stands already possessed of, and is exercising.

The health of the soul is as precarious as that of the body; for when we seem secure from passions, we are no less in danger of their infection than we are of falling ill when we appear to be well.