It is the prerogative of great men only to have great defects.

It may be said that the vices await us in the journey of life like hosts with whom we must successively lodge; and I doubt whether experience would make us avoid them if we were to travel the same road a second time.

True bravery is shown by performing without witness what one might be capable of doing before all the world.

We acknowledge that we should not talk of our wives; but we seem not to know that we should talk still less of ourselves.

A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.

We often credit ourselves with vices the reverse of what we have, thus when weak we boast of our obstinacy.

Hope, deceiving as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route.