A man's worth has its season, like fruit.

We would rather see those to whom we do good, than those who do good to us.

What is called liberality is often merely the vanity of giving.

In great affairs we ought to apply ourselves less to creating chances than to profiting from those that offer.

Fearlessness is a more than ordinary strength of mind, which raises the soul above the troubles, disorders, and emotions which theprospect of great dangers are used to produce. And by this inward strength it is that heroes preserve themselves in a calm and quiet state, and enjoy a presence of mind and the free use of their reason in the midst of those terrible accidents that amaze and confound other people.

The esteem of good men is the reward of our worth, but the reputation of the world in general is the gift of our fate.

The secret of pleasing in conversation is not to explain too much everything; to say them half and leave a little for divination is a mark of the good opinion we have of others, and nothing flatters their self-love more.