Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them.

To establish yourself in the world a person must do all they can to appear already established.

Our minds are lazier than our bodies.

That which makes the vanity of others unbearable to us is that which wounds our own.

The mark of extraordinary merit is to see those most envious of it constrained to praise.

Friendship is only a reciprocal conciliation of interests, and an exchange of good offices; it is a species of commerce out of which self-love always expects to gain something.

Fortune converts everything to the advantage of her favorites.