Esteem never makes ingrates.

The desire to seem clever often keeps us from being so.

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.

The extreme pleasure we take in speaking of ourselves should make us apprehensive that it gives hardly any to those who listen to us.

We do not praise others, ordinarily, but in order to be praised ourselves.

If we did not have pride, we would not complain of it in others.

It is often hard to determine whether a clear, open, and honorable proceeding is the result of goodness or of cunning.