One thing which makes us find so few people who appear reasonable and agreeable in conversation is, that there is scarcely any one who does not think more of what he is about to say than of answering precisely what is said to him.

Those who occupy their minds with small matters, generally become incapable of greatness.

Kings do with men as with pieces of money; they give them what value they please, and we are obliged to receive them at their current and not at their real value.

Nothing is so contagious as example; and we never do any great good or evil which does not produce its like.

Nothing is so contagious as example; never was there any considerable good or ill done that does not produce its like. We imitate good actions through emulation, and had ones through a malignity in our nature, which shame conceals, and example sets at liberty.

A man may be sharper than another, but not than all others.

Familiarity is a suspension of almost all the laws of civility, which libertinism has introduced into society under the notion of ease.