It is not always for virtue's sake that women are virtuous.

Solemnity is a device of the body to hide the faults of the mind.

Idleness and constancy fix the mind to what it finds easy and agreeable. This habit always confines and cramps up our knowledge; and no one has ever taken the trouble to stretch and carry his understanding as far as it could go.

If we have not peace within ourselves, it is in vain to seek it from outward sources.

The constancy of the wise is only the art of keeping disquietude to one's self.

Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking on.

Flattery is a kind of bad money, to which our vanity gives us currency.