The thing that makes our friendships so short and changeable is that the qualities and dispositions of the soul are very hard to know, and those of the understanding and wit very easy.

Thinkers think and doers do. But until the thinkers do and the doers think, progress will be just another word in the already overburdened vocabulary by sense.

Philosophy finds it an easy matter to vanquish past and future evils, but the present are commonly too hard for it.

Ability wins us the esteem of the true men; luck, that of the people.

Everyone blames his memory, no one blames his judgment.

To establish ourselves in the world, we have to do all we can to appear established. To succeed in the world, we do everything we can to appear successful.

There are persons whose only merit consists in saying and doing stupid things at the right time, and who ruin all if they change their manners.