We are sometimes as different from ourselves as we are from others.

It is no tragedy to do ungrateful people favors, but it is unbearable to be indebted to a scoundrel.

The good or the bad fortune of men depends not less upon their own dispositions than upon fortune.

Spiritual health is no more stable than bodily; and though we may seem unaffected by the passions we are just as liable to be carried away by them as to fall ill when in good health.

Some men are so full of themselves that when they fall in love, they amuse themselves rather with their own passion than with theperson they love.

We should gain more by letting the world see what we are than by trying to seem what we are not.

The courage of a great many men, and the virtue of a great many women, are the effect of vanity, shame, and especially a suitabletemperament.