Fortune and humor govern the world.

It is as common for tastes to change as it is uncommon for traits of character.

We should wish for few things with eagerness, if we perfectly knew the nature of that which was the object of our desire.

Of all our faults, the one we avow most easily is idleness; we persuade ourselves that it is allied to all the peaceable virtues,and as for the others, that it does not destroy them utterly, but only suspends the exercise of their functions.

The world more often rewards the appearances of merit than merit itself.

There are some people upon whom their very faults and failings sit gracefully; and there are others whose very excellencies and accomplishments do not become them.

A man convinced of his own merit will accept misfortune as an honor, for thus can he persuade others, as well as himself, that he is a worthy target for the arrows of fate.