Love of fame, fear of disgrace, schemes for advancement, desire to make life comfortable and pleasant, and the urge to humiliate others are often at the root of the valour men hold in such high esteem.

All our qualities, whether good or bad, are unstable and ambiguous, and almost all are at the mery of chance.

Our distrust of another justifies his deceit.

Men have written in the most convincing manner to prove that death is no evil, and this opinion has been confirmed on a thousand celebrated occasions by the weakest of men as well as by heroes. Even so I doubt whether any sensible person has ever believed it, and the trouble men take to convince others as well as themselves that they do shows clearly that it is no easy undertaking.

We should scarcely desire things ardently if we were perfectly acquainted with what we desire.

Some accidents there are in life that a little folly is necessary to help us out of.

A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.