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

There are few people more convinced of their own genius than those who complain of how stupid they are.

No man deserves to be praised for his goodness, who has it not in his power to be wicked. Goodness without that power is generally nothing more than sloth, or an impotence of will.

Satire is at once the most agreeable and most dangerous of mental qualities. It always pleases when it is refined, but we always fear those who use it too much; yet satire should be allowed when unmixed with spite, and when the person satirized can join in the satire.

Some beautiful things are more dazzling when they are still imperfect than when they have been too perfectly crafted.

Men's happiness and misery depends altogether as much upon their own humor as it does upon fortune.

We are sometimes as different from ourselves as we are from others.