We label judges with having the meanest motives, and yet we desire that our reputation and fame should depend upon the judgment of men, who are all, either from their jealousy or preoccupation or want of intelligence, opposed to us - and yet despite their bias, just for the sake of making these men decide in our favor, we peril in so many ways both our peace and our life.

As we grow older we grow both more foolish and wiser at the same time.

What makes us so often discontented with those who transact business for us is that they almost always abandon the interest of their friends for the interest of the business, because they wish to have the honor of succeeding in that which they have undertaken.

It is not enough that we should succeed, but our friends must fail as well.

What we take for virtue is often nothing but an assemblage of different actions, and of different interests, that fortune or our industry knows how to arrange.

Bravery in simple soldiers is a dangerous trade, to which they have bound themselves to get their livelihood.

What often prevents our abandoning ourselves to a single vice is, our having more than one.