It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves.

Boredom ... causes us to neglect more duties than does interest.

When our vices desert us, we flatter ourselves that we are deserting our vices.

What men call friendship is no more than a partnership, a mutual care of interests, an exchange of favors - in a word, it is a sort of traffic, in which self-love ever proposes to be the gainer.

Moderation is represented as a virtue in order to restrain the ambition of great men, and to console those of a meaner condition in their lesser merit and fortune.

Whilst weakness and timidity keep us to our duty, virtue has often all the honor.

It is safer to do most men harm than to do them too much good.