What renders us so changeable in our friendship is, that it is difficult to know the qualities of the soul, but easy to know those of the mind.

Everyone complains of his memory, and nobody complains of his judgment.

Men more easily renounce their interests than their tastes.

The most sure method of subjecting yourself to be deceived is to consider yourself more cunning than others.

Clemency, which we make a virtue of, proceeds sometimes from vanity, sometimes from indolence, often from fear, and almost always from a mixture of all three.

In misfortune we often mistake dejection for constancy; we bear it without daring to look on it; like cowards, who suffer themselves to be murdered without resistance.

Silence is the safest course for any man to adopt who distrust himself.