The sicknesses of the soul have their ups and downs like those of the body; what we take to be a cure is most often merely a respite or change of disease.

However great the advantages given us by nature, it is not she alone, but fortune with her, which makes heroes.

The name and pretense of virtue is as serviceable to self-interest as are real vices.

Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example.

Preserving the serious health condition is usually painful.

Coquetry is the essential characteristic, and the prevalent humor of women; but they do not all practice it, because the coquetry of some is restrained by fear or by reason.

Decency is the least of all laws, but yet it is the law which is most strictly observed.