Gratitude, in most men, is only a strong and secret hope of greater favors.

Virtue would go far if vanity did not keep it company.

We sometimes imagine we hate flattery, but we only hate the way we are flattered.

In the human heart there is a ceaseless birth of passions, so that the destruction of one is almost always the establishment of another.

Some accidents there are in life that a little folly is necessary to help us out of.

Strength and weakness of mind are misnomers; they are really nothing but the good or bad health of our bodily organs.

The daily employment of cunning marks a little mind, it generally happens that those who resort to it in one respect to protect themselves lay themselves open to attack in another.