Nature seems at each man's birth to have marked out the bounds of his virtues and vices, and to have determined how good or how wicked that man shall be capable of being.

He who imagines he can do without the world deceives himself much; but he who fancies the world cannot do without him is still more mistaken.

There is merit without rank, but there is no rank without some merit.

Most men expose themselves in battle enough to save their honor, few wish to do so more than sufficiently, or than is necessary to make the design for which they expose themselves succeed.

Nothing is more contagious than example, and no man does any exceeding good or exceeding ill but it spawns new deeds of the same kind. The good we imitate through emulation, the ill through the malignity of our nature, which shame keeps locked up, but example sets free.

If vanity does not entirely overthrow the virtues, at least it makes them all totter.

It is the habit of mediocre minds to condemn all that is beyond their grasp.