Selfishness is the grand moving principle of nine-tenths of our actions.

It is easier to appear worthy of a position one does not hold, than of the office which one fills.

Plenty of people want to be pious, but no one yearns to be humble.

Self-love increases or diminishes for us the good qualities of our friends, in proportion to the satisfaction we feel with them; and we judge of their merit by the manner in which they act towards us.

We are never so ridiculous through what we are as through what we pretend to be.

If it requires great tact to speak to the purpose, it requires no less to know when to be silent.

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.