What is called generosity is usually only the vanity of giving; we enjoy the vanity more than the thing given.

Happy people rarely correct their faults; they consider themselves vindicated, since fortune endorses their evil ways.

A man does not please long when he has only species of wit.

Praise is a more ingenious, concealed, and subtle kind of flattery, that satisfies both the giver and the receiver, though by verydifferent ways. The one accepts it as a reward due to his merit; the other gives it that he may be looked upon as a just and discerning person.

Preserving the serious health condition is usually painful.

When we enlarge upon the affection our friends have for us, this is very often not so much out of a sense of gratitude as from a desire to persuade people of our own great worth, that can deserve so much kindness.

Only the great can afford to have great defects.