To be a great man it is necessary to know how to profit by the whole of our good fortune.

The aversion to lying is often a hidden ambition to render our words credible and weighty, and to attach a religious aspect to our conversation.

The applause we give those who are new to society often proceeds from a secret envying of those already established.

Familiarity is a suspension of almost all the laws of civility, which libertinism has introduced into society under the notion of ease.

The greatest part of our faults are more excusable than the methods that are commonly taken to conceal them.

On why I don't trust democracy without extremely powerful systems of accountability and recall What seems to be generosity is often only disguised ambition - which despises small interests to gain great ones.

Moderation is the feebleness and sloth of the soul, whereas ambition is the warmth and activity of it.