We should not judge a man's merits by his great qualities, but by the use he makes of them.

It requires greater virtues to support good fortune than bad.

Even the most disinterested love is, after all, but a kind of bargain, in which self-love always proposes to be the gainer one wayor another.

The fondness or indifference that the philosophers expressed for life was merely a preference inspired by their self-love, and will no more bear reasoning upon than the relish of the palate or the choice of colors.

The whimsicalness of our own humor is a thousand times more fickle and unaccountable than what we blame so much in fortune.

Considering how little the beginning or the ceasing to love is in our own power, it is foolish and unreasonable for the lover or his mistress to complain of one another's inconstancy.

The measure of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it.