We make promises to the extent that we hope-and keep them to the extent that we fear.

What men have called friendship is only a social arrangement, a mutual adjustment of interests, an interchange of services given and received; it is, in sum, simply a business from which those involved propose to derive a steady profit for their own self-love.

Hope and fear are inseparable. There is no hope without fear, nor any fear without hope.

There are two things which Man cannot look at directly without flinching: the sun and death.

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.

The moderation of men in the most exalted fortunes is a desire to be thought above those things that have raised them so high.

We are nearer loving those who hate us than those who love us more than we wish.