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.

The defects of the mind, like those of the face, grow worse with age.

Ideas often flash across our minds more complete than we could make them after much labor.

We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them.

What makes the pain we feel from shame and jealousy so cutting is that vanity can give us no assistance in bearing them.

We get so much in the habit of wearing disguises before others that we finally appear disguised before ourselves.

Sometimes accidents happen in life from which we have need of a little madness to extricate ourselves successfully