It is given to few persons to keep this secret well. Those who lay down rules too often break them, and the safest we are able to give is to listen much, to speak little, and to say nothing that that will ever give ground or regret.

We can never be certain of our courage until we have faced danger.

The sure mark of one born with noble qualities is being born without envy.

The contempt of riches in philosophers was only a hidden desire to avenge their merit upon the injustice of fortune, by despising the very goods of which fortune had deprived them; it was a secret to guard themselves against the degradation of poverty, it was a back way by which to arrive at that distinction which they could not gain by riches.

Flattery is false money, which would not be current were it not for our vanity.

The intellect of the generality of women serves more to fortify their folly than their reason.

Men more easily renounce their interests than their tastes.