Pride, which inspires us with so much envy, is sometimes of use toward the moderating of it too.

However great the advantages given us by nature, it is not she alone, but fortune with her, which makes heroes.

One can no more look steadily at death than at the sun.

When the philosophers despised riches, it was because they had a mind to vindicate their own merit, and take revenge upon the injustice of fortune by vilifying those enjoyments which she had not given them.

We never desire strongly, what we desire rationally.

Friendship is only a reciprocal conciliation of interests, and an exchange of good offices; it is a species of commerce out of which self-love always expects to gain something.

The passions often engender their contraries.