Imagination does not enable us to invent as many different contradictions as there are by nature in every heart.

Fortune turns all things to the advantage of those on whom she smiles.

Nature seems at each man's birth to have marked out the bounds of his virtues and vices, and to have determined how good or how wicked that man shall be capable of being.

Vices are ingredients of virtues just as poisons are ingredients of remedies. Prudence mixes and tempers them and uses them effectively against life's ills.

Idiots and lunatics see only their own wit.

A man is ridiculous less through the characteristics he has than through those he affects to have.

Avarice is more opposite to economy than liberality.