The moderation of people in prosperity is the effect of a smooth and composed temper, owing to the calm of their good fortune.

Moderation resembles temperance. We are not so unwilling to eat more, as afraid of doing ourselves harm by it.

The heart is forever making the head its fool.

The aversion to lying is often a hidden ambition to render our words credible and weighty, and to attach a religious aspect to our conversation.

Fortune cures us of many faults that reason could not.

When fortune surprises us by giving us some great office without having gradually led us to expect it, or without having raised our hopes, it is well nigh impossible to occupy it well, and to appear worthy to fill it.

Folly pursues us at all periods of our lives. If someone seems wise it is only because his follies are proportionate to his age and fortune.