Confidence in conversation has a greater share than wit.

There are a great many simpletons who know themselves to be so, and who make a very cunning use of their own simplicity.

It is not expedient or wise to examine our friends too closely; few persons are raised in our esteem by a close examination.

The violence we do to ourselves in order to remain faithful to the one we love is hardly better than an act of infidelity.

That man, we may be sure, is a person of true worth, whom those who envy him most are yet forced to praise.

Few things are impossible in themselves: application to make them succeed fails us more often than the means.

To understand matters rightly we should understand their details; and as that knowledge is almost infinite, our knowledge is always superficial and imperfect.