Jealousy is bred in doubts. When those doubts change into certainties, then the passion either ceases or turns absolute madness.

The fame of great men ought to be judged always by their big, fancy names.

Without humility, we keep all our defects; and they are only crusted over by pride, which conceals them from others, and often from ourselves.

Sometimes we lose friends for whose loss our regret is greater than our grief, and others for whom our grief is greater than our regret.

The cunningest dissimulation is when a man pretends to be caught in the traps others set for him; and a man is never so easily over-reached as when he is contriving to over-reach others.

One can no more look steadily at death than at the sun.

It is easier to understand mankind in general than any individual man.