If we never flattered ourselves we should have but scant pleasure.

Second-rate minds usually condemn everything beyond their grasp.

Familiarity is a suspension of almost all the laws of civility, which libertinism has introduced into society under the notion of ease.

The blindness of men is the most dangerous effect of their pride; it seems to nourish and augment it; it deprives them of knowledge of remedies which can solace their miseries and can cure their faults.

Man only blames himself in order that he may be praised.

What makes false reckoning, as regards gratitude, is that the pride of the giver and the receiver cannot agree as to the value of the benefit.

To safeguard one's health at the cost of too strict a diet is a tiresome illness, indeed.