Self-love, as it happens to be well or ill conducted, constitutes virtue and vice.

That good disposition which boasts of being most tender is often stifled by the least urging of self-interest.

Avarice misapprehends itself almost always. There is no passion which more often will miss its aim, nor upon which the present has so much influence to the prejudice of the future.

Death, like the sun, cannot be looked at steadily.

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.

What makes us so bitter against people who outwit us is that they think themselves cleverer than we are.

Moderation is a fear of falling into that envy and contempt which those who grow giddy with their good fortune quite justly draw upon themselves. It is a vain boasting of the greatness of our mind.