It is oftener by the estimation of our own feelings that we exaggerate the good qualities of others than by their merit, and when we praise them we wish to attract their praise.

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.

Only the contemptible fear contempt.

Of all our faults, the one we avow most easily is idleness; we persuade ourselves that it is allied to all the peaceable virtues,and as for the others, that it does not destroy them utterly, but only suspends the exercise of their functions.

Generally speaking, we would make a good bargain by renouncing all the good that people say of us, upon condition they would say no ill.

However much we may distrust men's sincerity, we always believe they speak to us more sincerely than to others.

We are almost always bored by just those whom we must not find boring.