The breeding we give young people is ordinarily but an additional self-love, by which we make them have a better opinion of themselves.

Those who are themselves incapable of great crimes are ever backward to suspect others.

Gratitude is a lively sense of benefits to come.

What is perfectly true is perfectly witty.

When our vices desert us, we flatter ourselves that we are deserting our vices.

Happiness does not consist in things themselves but in the relish we have of them; and a man has attained it when he enjoys what he loves and desires himself, and not what other people think lovely and desirable.

The person giving the advice returns the confidence placed in him with a disinterested eagerness... and he is usually guided only by his own interest or reputation.