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.

Nothing should lessen our satisfaction with ourselves as much as when we notice that we disapprove of something at one time that we approve of at another time.

What often prevents our abandoning ourselves to a single vice is, our having more than one.

Second-rate minds usually condemn everything beyond their grasp.

If we are incapable of finding peace in ourselves, it is pointless to search elsewhere.

Nothing is more contagious than example, and no man does any exceeding good or exceeding ill but it spawns new deeds of the same kind. The good we imitate through emulation, the ill through the malignity of our nature, which shame keeps locked up, but example sets free.

We feel good and ill only in proportion to our self-love.