We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.

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

Vanity, shame, and above all disposition, often make men brave and women chaste.

To be a great man it is necessary to turn to account all opportunities.

A clever man should handle his interests so that each will fall in suitable order of their value.

He that fancies such a sufficiency in himself that he can live without all the world is greatly mistaken; but he that imagines himself so necessary that other people cannot live without him is a great deal more mistaken.

Humility is the sure evidence of Christian virtues. Without it, we retain all our faults still, and they are only covered over with pride, which hides them from other men's observation, and sometimes from our own too.