Sometimes accidents happen in life from which we have need of a little madness to extricate ourselves successfully

The defects and faults of the mind are like wounds in the body; after all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up, still there will be a scar left behind, and they are in continual danger of breaking the skin and bursting out again.

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

Passion makes idiots of the cleverest men, and makes the biggest idiots clever.

Never give anyone the advice to buy or sell shares, because the most benevolent price of advice can turn out badly.

The health of the soul is as precarious as that of the body; for when we seem secure from passions, we are no less in danger of their infection than we are of falling ill when we appear to be well.

No matter how much care we put into hiding our passions under the appearances of devotion and honor, they can always be seen to peer out through these covers.