The evil that we do does not attract to us so much persecution and hatred as our good qualities.

The intention of never deceiving often exposes us to deception.

Pity is often a reflection of our own evils in the ills of others. It is a delicate foresight of the troubles into which we may fall.

Nothing is more contagious than example, and no man does any exceeding good or exceeding ill but it spawns new deeds of the same kind. The good we imitate through emulation, the ill through the malignity of our nature, which shame keeps locked up, but example sets free.

The only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us.

No fools are so difficult to manage as those with some brains.

The sicknesses of the soul have their ups and downs like those of the body; what we take to be a cure is most often merely a respite or change of disease.