Nothing is more contagious than example, and no man does any exceeding good or exceeding ill but it spawns new deeds of the same kind. The good we imitate through emulation, the ill through the malignity of our nature, which shame keeps locked up, but example sets free.

Moderation in people who are contented comes from that calm that good fortune lends to their spirit.

We do not lack strength so much as the will to use it; and very often our imagining that things are impossible is nothing but an excuse of our own contriving, to reconcile ourselves to our own idleness.

If one judges love according to the greatest part of the effects it produces, it would appear to resemble rather hatred than kindness.

The accent of one's birthplace remains in the mind and in the heart as in one's speech.

The extreme pleasure we take in speaking of ourselves should make us apprehensive that it gives hardly any to those who listen to us.

Were we not proud ourselves, we should not complain of the pride of others.