If you cannot find peace in yourself, it is useless to look for it elsewhere.

Moderation is a fear of falling into that envy and contempt which those who grow giddy with their good fortune quite justly draw upon themselves. It is a vain boasting of the greatness of our mind.

The most subtle of our acts is to simulate blindness for snares that we know are set for us.

Gratitude, in most men, is only a strong and secret hope of greater favors.

We are better pleased to see those on whom we confer benefits than those from whom we receive them.

We are more often treacherous through weakness than through calculation.

Love can no more continue without a constant motion than fire can; and when once you take hope and fear away, you take from it its very life and being.