Some good qualities are like the senses: Those who are entirely deprived of them can have no notion of them.

Chance corrects us of many faults that reason would not know how to correct.

Smallness of mind is the cause of stubbornness, and we do not credit readily what is beyond our view.

The constancy of the wise is only the talent of concealing the agitation of their hearts.

Nothing is so capable of diminishing self-love as the observation that we disapprove at one time what we approve at another.

We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them.

Luxury and excessive refinement are sure forerunners of the decadence of states, because when all individuals seek their own interests they neglect the public weal.