We are much harder on people who betray us in small ways than on people who betray others in great ones.

Behind many acts that are thought ridiculous there lie wise and weighty motives.

When great men permit themselves to be cast down by the continuance of misfortune, they show us that they were only sustained by ambition, and not by their mind; so that PLUS a great vanity, heroes are made like other men.

Sometimes we lose friends for whose loss our regret is greater than our grief, and others for whom our grief is greater than our regret.

Happiness does not consist in things themselves but in the relish we have of them; and a man has attained it when he enjoys what he loves and desires himself, and not what other people think lovely and desirable.

Our hopes, often though they deceive us, lead us pleasantly along the path of life.

Great names abase, instead of elevating, those who do not know how to bear them.