In the human heart new passions are forever being born; the overthrow of one almost always means the rise of another.

The secret of pleasing in conversation is not to explain too much everything; to say them half and leave a little for divination is a mark of the good opinion we have of others, and nothing flatters their self-love more.

Those whom the world has delighted to honor have oftener been influenced in their doings by ambition and vanity than by patriotism.

The daily employment of cunning marks a little mind, it generally happens that those who resort to it in one respect to protect themselves lay themselves open to attack in another.

It is often laziness and timidity that keep us within our duty while virtue gets all the credit.

We often do shallow good in order to accomplish evil with impunity.

Great men's honor ought always to be measured by the methods they made use of in attaining it.