We may seem great in an employment below our worth, but we very often look little in one that is too big for us.

Self-interest speaks all manner of tongues and plays all manner of parts, even that of disinterestedness.

Our concern for the loss of our friends is not always from a sense of their worth, but rather of our own need of them and that we have lost some who had a good opinion of us.

Some people are like popular songs that you only sing for a short time.

When our vices desert us, we flatter ourselves that we are deserting our vices.

Praise is flattery, artful, hidden, delicate, which gratifies differently him who praises and him who is praised. The one takes it as the reward of merit, the other bestows it to show his impartiality and knowledge.

Hope is the last thing that dies in man; and though it be exceedingly deceitful, yet it is of this good use to us, that while we are traveling through life it conducts us in an easier and more pleasant way to our journey's end.