The same strength of character which helps a man resist love, helps to make it more violent and lasting too. People of unsettled minds are always driven about with passions, but never absolutely filled with any.

True bravery means doing alone that which one could do if all the world were by.

Conceit causes more conversation than wit.

One thing which makes us find so few people who appear reasonable and agreeable in conversation is, that there is scarcely any one who does not think more of what he is about to say than of answering precisely what is said to him.

We love everything on our own account; we even follow our own taste and inclination when we prefer our friends to ourselves; and yet it is this preference alone that constitutes true and perfect friendship.

It is almost always a fault of one who loves not to realize when he ceases to be loved.

Moderation is the feebleness and sloth of the soul, whereas ambition is the warmth and activity of it.