The name and pretense of virtue is as serviceable to self-interest as are real vices.

A certain harmony should be kept between actions and ideas if we want to fully develop the effects they can produce.

There are certain people fated to be fools; they not only commit follies by choice, but are even constrained to do so by fortune.

The passions often engender their contraries.

Things often offer themselves to our mind in a more finished form in the very first thought, than we might have made them by muchart and study.

Love of fame, fear of disgrace, schemes for advancement, desire to make life comfortable and pleasant, and the urge to humiliate others are often at the root of the valour men hold in such high esteem.

All men are equally proud. The only difference is that not all take the same methods of showing it.