If one acts rightly and honestly, it is difficult to decide whether it is the effect of integrity or skill.

Passion often makes a fool of the cleverest man and often makes the most foolish men clever

Happiness does not consist in things themselves but in the relish we have of them.

The most brilliant fortunes are often not worth the littleness required to gain them.

In infants, levity is a prettiness; in men a shameful defect; but in old age, a monstrous folly.

It is easier to know men in general, than men in particular.

Praise is flattery, artful, hidden, delicate, which gratifies differently him who praises and him who is praised. The one takes it as the reward of merit, the other bestows it to show his impartiality and knowledge.