Few are sufficiently wise to prefer censure which is useful to praise which is treacherous.

Nothing is more ridiculous in old people that were once good-looking, than to forget that they are not so still.

Confidence always pleases those who receive it. It is a tribute we pay to their merit, a deposit we commit to their trust, a pledge that gives them a claim upon us, a kind of dependence to which we voluntarily submit.

A man convinced of his own merit will accept misfortune as an honor, for thus can he persuade others, as well as himself, that he is a worthy target for the arrows of fate.

There is no praise we have not lavished upon prudence; and yet she cannot assure to us the most trifling event.

Idleness and fear keeps us in the path of duty, but our virtue often gets the praise.

It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible.