However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship.

The great interests of man: air and light, the joy of having a body, the voluptuousness of looking.

That which makes the vanity of others unbearable to us is that which wounds our own.

It is as commendable to think well of oneself when alone, as it is ridiculous to speak well of oneself among others.

To awaken a man who is deceived as to his own merit is to do him as bad a turn as that done to the Athenian madman who was happy in believing that all the ships touching at the port belonged to him.

It is difficult to like those whom we do not esteem; but it is no less so to like those whom we esteem more than ourselves.

The defects and faults of the mind are like wounds in the body; after all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up, still there will be a scar left behind, and they are in continual danger of breaking the skin and bursting out again.