Narrow minds think nothing right that is above their own capacity.

What makes false reckoning, as regards gratitude, is that the pride of the giver and the receiver cannot agree as to the value of the benefit.

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.

It is as proper to have pride in oneself as it ridiculous to show it to others.

The appearances of goodness and merit often meet with a greater reward from the world than goodness and merit themselves.

Treachery is more often the effect of weakness than of a formed design.

There are a great many simpletons who know themselves to be so, and who make a very cunning use of their own simplicity.