What keeps us from abandoning ourselves entirely to one vice, often, is the fact that we have several.

We label judges with having the meanest motives, and yet we desire that our reputation and fame should depend upon the judgment of men, who are all, either from their jealousy or preoccupation or want of intelligence, opposed to us - and yet despite their bias, just for the sake of making these men decide in our favor, we peril in so many ways both our peace and our life.

All our qualities, whether good or bad, are unstable and ambiguous, and almost all are at the mery of chance.

Great souls are not those who have fewer passions and more virtues than others, but only those who have greater designs.

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

Our enemies' opinion of us comes closer to the truth than our own.

All women are flirts, but some are restrained by shyness, and others by sense.