We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it.

It is sometimes a point of as much cleverness to know to make good use of advice from others as to be able give good advice to oneself.

In friendship, as in love, we are often more happy from the things we are ignorant of than from those we are acquainted with.

Those who are condemned to death affect sometimes a constancy and contempt for death which is only the fear of facing it; so that one may say that this constancy and contempt are to their mind what the bandage is to their eyes.

It is as easy to deceive one's self without perceiving it, as it is difficult to deceive others without their finding out.

The only security is courage.

People are more slanderous from vanity than from malice.