It is a mistake to imagine, that the violent passions only, such as ambition and love, can triumph over the rest. Idleness, languid as it is, often masters them all; she influences all our designs and actions, and insensibly consumes and destroys both passions and virtues.

It is with certain good qualities as with the senses; those who have them not can neither appreciate nor comprehend them in others.

It is not always for virtue's sake that women are virtuous.

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

Self-love makes our friends appear more or less deserving in proportion to the delight we take in them, and the measures by whichwe judge of their worth depend upon the manner of their conversing with us.

Most people know no other way of judging men's worth but by the vogue they are in, or the fortunes they have met with.

The health of the soul is something we can be no more sure of than that of the body; and though a man may seem far from the passions, yet he is in as much danger of falling into them as one in a perfect state of health of having a fit of sickness.