In the intercourse of life, we please more by our faults than by our good qualities.

Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy they are, who already possess it.

Avarice misapprehends itself almost always. There is no passion which more often will miss its aim, nor upon which the present has so much influence to the prejudice of the future.

Passion often makes fools of the wisest men and gives the silliest wisdom.

As we grow older, we increase in folly--and in wisdom.

Our repentances are generally not so much a concern and remorse for the harm we have done, as a fear of the harm we may have brought upon ourselves.

The esteem of good men is the reward of our worth, but the reputation of the world in general is the gift of our fate.