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

Generosity is the vanity of giving.

Flattery is a base coin which is current only through our vanity.

The temperament that produces a talent for little things is the opposite of that required for great ones.

Praise is a more ingenious, concealed, and subtle kind of flattery, that satisfies both the giver and the receiver, though by verydifferent ways. The one accepts it as a reward due to his merit; the other gives it that he may be looked upon as a just and discerning person.

We should gain more by letting the world see what we are than by trying to seem what we are not.

Jealousy is in some measure just and reasonable, since it merely aims at keeping something that belongs to us or we think belongsto us, whereas envy is a frenzy that cannot bear anything that belongs to others.