As the great ones of this world are unable to bestow health of body or peace of mind, we always pay too high a price for any good they can do.

The contempt of riches in the philosophers was a concealed desire of revenging on fortune the injustice done to their merit, by despising the good she denied them.

To establish ourselves in the world, we have to do all we can to appear established. To succeed in the world, we do everything we can to appear successful.

Fortune makes our virtues and vices visible, just as light does the objects of sight.

Bodily labor alleviates the pains of the mind and from this arises the happiness of the poor

The principal point of cleverness is to know how to value things just as they deserve.

Self-love, as it happens to be well or ill conducted, constitutes virtue and vice.