A clever man reaps some benefit from the worst catastrophe, and a fool can turn even good luck to his disadvantage.

We like to read others but we do not like to be read.

Some men are like ballads, that are in everyone's mouth a little while.

There are no circumstances, however unfortunate, that clever people do not extract some advantage from.

When we exaggerate our friends' tenderness towards us, it is often less from gratitude than from a desire to exhibit our own virtue.

He that fancies such a sufficiency in himself that he can live without all the world is greatly mistaken; but he that imagines himself so necessary that other people cannot live without him is a great deal more mistaken.

Some counterfeits reproduce so very well the truth that it would be a flaw of judgment not to be deceived by them.