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.

Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.

Το know how to profit by good advice, requires nearly as much ability as to know how to act for one'self.

There are people who would never have been in love, had they never heard love spoken of.

It often happens that things come into the mind in a more finished form than could have been achieved after much study.

Eloquence: saying the proper thing and stopping.

Men's happiness and misery depends altogether as much upon their own humor as it does upon fortune.