We seldom find people ungrateful so long as it is thought we can serve them.

A man of understanding finds less difficulty in submitting to a wrong-headed fellow, than in attempting to set him right.

There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not.

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.

Jealousy is in a manner just and reasonable, as it tends to preserve a good which belongs, or which we believe belongs to us, on the other hand envy is a fury which cannot endure the happiness of others.

Indolence, languid as it is, often masters both passions and virtues.

Weakness is more opposed to virtue than is vice.