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

Being a blockhead is sometimes the best security against being cheated by a man of wit.

Man only blames himself in order that he may be praised.

To understand matters rightly we should understand their details; and as that knowledge is almost infinite, our knowledge is always superficial and imperfect.

We own up to minor failings, but only so as to convince others that we have no major ones.

He is not to pass for a man of reason who stumbles upon reason by chance but he who knows it and can judge it and has a true taste for it.

The health of the soul is as precarious as that of the body; for when we seem secure from passions, we are no less in danger of their infection than we are of falling ill when we appear to be well.