Praise is flattery, artful, hidden, delicate, which gratifies differently him who praises and him who is praised. The one takes it as the reward of merit, the other bestows it to show his impartiality and knowledge.

Gratitude, in most men, is only a strong and secret hope of greater favors.

If one judges love according to the greatest part of the effects it produces, it would appear to resemble rather hatred than kindness.

If we have not peace within ourselves, it is in vain to seek it from outward sources.

It is sometimes necessary to play the fool to avoid being deceived by cunning men.

Of all our faults, the one we avow most easily is idleness; we persuade ourselves that it is allied to all the peaceable virtues,and as for the others, that it does not destroy them utterly, but only suspends the exercise of their functions.

Hope is the last thing that dies in man; and though it be exceedingly deceitful, yet it is of this good use to us, that while we are traveling through life it conducts us in an easier and more pleasant way to our journey's end.