The height of ability consists in a thorough knowledge of the real value of things, and of the genius of the age in which we live.

What makes lovers never tire of one another is that they talk always about themselves.

Self-interest makes some people blind, and others sharp-sighted.

Men have written in the most convincing manner to prove that death is no evil, and this opinion has been confirmed on a thousand celebrated occasions by the weakest of men as well as by heroes. Even so I doubt whether any sensible person has ever believed it, and the trouble men take to convince others as well as themselves that they do shows clearly that it is no easy undertaking.

If we resist our passions, it is more due to their weakness than our strength.

There are people who, like new songs, are in vogue only for a time.

More men are guilty of treason through weakness than any studied design to betray.