Fortune cures us of many faults that reason could not.

Indolence, languid as it is, often masters both passions and virtues.

One cannot answer for his courage when he has never been in danger.

Hope, deceiving as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route.

Our greediness so often troubles us, making us run after so many things at the same time, that while we too eagerly look after the least we miss the greatest.

We are deceived if we think that mind and judgment are two different matters: judgment is but the extent of the light of the mind. This light penetrates to the bottom of matters; it remarks all that can be remarked, and perceives what appears imperceptible. Therefore we must agree that it is the extent of the light in the mind that produces all the effects which we attribute to judgment.

What makes vanity so insufferable to us, is that it hurts our own.