Nothing ought more to humiliate men who have merited great praise than the care they still take to boast of little things.

The blindness of men is the most dangerous effect of their pride; it seems to nourish and augment it; it deprives them of knowledge of remedies which can solace their miseries and can cure their faults.

The constancy of the wise is only the art of keeping disquietude to one's self.

The soul's maladies have their relapses like the body's. What we take for a cure is often just a momentary rally or a new form of the disease.

People always complain about their memories, never about their minds.

A man is perhaps ungrateful, but often less chargeable with ingratitude than his benefactor is.

It is often laziness and timidity that keep us within our duty while virtue gets all the credit.