A true friend is the most precious of all possessions and the one we take the least thought about acquiring.

To be a great man it is necessary to turn to account all opportunities.

The good or the bad fortune of men depends not less upon their own dispositions than upon fortune.

We are more often treacherous through weakness than through calculation.

We frequently are troublesome to others, when we think it impossible for us ever to be so.

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

It is as easy to unknowingly deceive yourself as it is to deceive others.