Minds of moderate caliber ordinarily condemn everthing which is beyond their range.

Luxury and excessive refinement are sure forerunners of the decadence of states, because when all individuals seek their own interests they neglect the public weal.

We seldom find any person of good sense, except those who share our opinions.

We feel good and ill only in proportion to our self-love.

There are very few things impossible in themselves; and we do not want means to conquer difficulties so much as application and resolution in the use of means.

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.

Nothing is given so profusely as advice.