Jealousy is not so much the love of another as the love of ourselves.

The name and pretense of virtue is as serviceable to self-interest as are real vices.

Honest people will respect us for our merit: the public, for our luck.

There are few people more convinced of their own genius than those who complain of how stupid they are.

The largest ambition has the least appearance of ambition when it meets with an absolute impossibility in compassing its object.

The principal point of cleverness is to know how to value things just as they deserve.

Extreme boredom provides its own antidote.