It is sometimes a point of as much cleverness to know to make good use of advice from others as to be able give good advice to oneself.

He who imagines he can do without the world deceives himself much; but he who fancies the world cannot do without him is still more mistaken.

A man, in order to establish himself in the world, does everything he can to appear established there.

Pride, which inspires us with so much envy, is sometimes of use toward the moderating of it too.

We easily forgive our friends those faults that do no affect us ourselves.

Nothing is so capable of diminishing self-love as the observation that we disapprove at one time what we approve at another.

The cunningest dissimulation is when a man pretends to be caught in the traps others set for him; and a man is never so easily over-reached as when he is contriving to over-reach others.