The measure of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it.

Flattery is a counterfeit money which, but for vanity, would have no circulation.

What we take for high-mindedness is very often no other than ambition well disguised, that scorns means interests, only to pursuegreater.

Politeness of the mind is to have delicate thoughts

We often make use of envenomed praise, that reveals on the rebound, as it were, defects in those praised which we dare not exposeany other way.

Whatever discoveries we may have made in the regions of self-love, there still remain many unknown lands.

We arrive at the various stages of life quite as novices.