When we seek reconciliation with our enemies, it is commonly out of a desire to better our own condition, a being harassed and tired out with a state of war, and a fear of some ill accident which we are willing to prevent.

The happiness and misery of men depend no less on temper than fortune.

We do not despise all those who have vices, but we do despise those that have no virtue.

Those who are incapable of committing great crimes do not readily suspect them in others.

The mark of extraordinary merit is to see those most envious of it constrained to praise.

Love can no more continue without a constant motion than fire can; and when once you take hope and fear away, you take from it its very life and being.

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.