Tastes in young people are changed by natural impetuosity, and in the aged are preserved by habit.

We have more ability than will power, and it is often an excuse to ourselves that we imagine that things are impossible.

Those who are condemned to death affect sometimes a constancy and contempt for death which is only the fear of facing it; so that one may say that this constancy and contempt are to their mind what the bandage is to their eyes.

When we enlarge upon the affection our friends have for us, this is very often not so much out of a sense of gratitude as from a desire to persuade people of our own great worth, that can deserve so much kindness.

Everyone complains of his memory, and nobody complains of his judgment.

As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so small wits seem to have the gift of speaking much and saying nothing.

Preserving the serious health condition is usually painful.