We often pay our debts not because it is only fair that we should, but to make future loans easier.

The reason we do not let our friends see the very bottom of our hearts is not so much distrust of them as distrust of ourselves.

We should often blush at our noblest deeds if the world were to see all their underlying motives.

There are bad people who would be less dangerous if they were quite devoid of goodness.

Magnanimity is sufficiently defined by its name, nevertheless one can say it is the good sense of pride, the most noble way of receiving praise.

There are very few things impossible in themselves; and we do not want means to conquer difficulties so much as application and resolution in the use of means.

Imagination could never invent the number of different contradictions that exist innately in each person's heart.