Our good qualities expose us more to hatred and persecution than all the ill we do.

The more one loves a mistress, the more one is ready to hate her.

Jealousy is in some measure just and reasonable, since it merely aims at keeping something that belongs to us or we think belongsto us, whereas envy is a frenzy that cannot bear anything that belongs to others.

However evil men may be they dare not be openly hostile to virtue, and so when they want to attack it they pretend to find it spurious , or impute crimes to it.

Absence cools moderate passions, and inflames violent ones; just as the wind blows out candles, but kindles fires.

The violence done us by others is often less painful than that which we do to ourselves.

Our greediness so often troubles us, making us run after so many things at the same time, that while we too eagerly look after the least we miss the greatest.