We are almost always bored by just those whom we must not find boring.

There is something to be said for jealousy, because it only designs the preservation of some good which we either have or think wehave a right to. But envy is a raging madness that cannot bear the wealth or fortune of others.

It is a mighty error to suppose that none but violent and strong passions, such as love and ambition, are able to vanquish the rest. Even idleness, as feeble and languishing as it is, sometimes reigns over them; it usurps the throne and sits paramount over all the designs and actions of our lives, and imperceptibly wastes and destroys all our passions and all our virtues.

Self-love, as it happens to be well or ill conducted, constitutes virtue and vice.

The most sure method of subjecting yourself to be deceived is to consider yourself more cunning than others.

Hope, deceiving as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route.

When we exaggerate our friends' tenderness towards us, it is often less from gratitude than from a desire to exhibit our own virtue.