Hope, deceiving as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route.

Though men are apt to flatter and exalt themselves with their great achievements, yet these are, in truth, very often owing not so much to design as chance.

Some beautiful things are more dazzling when they are still imperfect than when they have been too perfectly crafted.

The whimsicalness of our own humor is a thousand times more fickle and unaccountable than what we blame so much in fortune.

A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire.

Love, like fire, cannot subsist without constant impulse; it ceases to live from the moment it ceases to hope or to fear.

It is difficult to like those whom we do not esteem; but it is no less so to like those whom we esteem more than ourselves.