We are all strong enough to bear other men's misfortunes.

It is a mistake to imagine, that the violent passions only, such as ambition and love, can triumph over the rest. Idleness, languid as it is, often masters them all; she influences all our designs and actions, and insensibly consumes and destroys both passions and virtues.

What renders other people's vanity insufferable is that it wounds our own.

Avarice often produces opposite results: there are an infinite number of persons who sacrifice their property to doubtful and distant expectations; others mistake great future advantages for small present interests.

Whatever pretext we may give for our affections, often it is only interest and vanity which cause them.

A man for whom accident discovers sense, is not a rational being. A man only is so who understands, who distinguishes, who tests it.

Truth is the foundation and the reason of the perfection of beauty, for of whatever stature a thing may be, it cannot be beautiful-and perfect, unless it be truly what it should be, and possess truly all that it should have.