No matter how brilliant an action, it should not be considered great unless it was the result of a great motive.
It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible.
It is a species of coquetry to make a parade of never practising it.
We do not wish ardently for what we desire only through reason.
We should not be upset that others hide the truth from us, when we hide it so often from ourselves.
Self-love is the love of a man's own self, and of everything else for his own sake. It makes people idolaters to themselves, and tyrants to all the world besides.