Men's happiness and misery depends altogether as much upon their own humor as it does upon fortune.

We label judges with having the meanest motives, and yet we desire that our reputation and fame should depend upon the judgment of men, who are all, either from their jealousy or preoccupation or want of intelligence, opposed to us - and yet despite their bias, just for the sake of making these men decide in our favor, we peril in so many ways both our peace and our life.

We often boast that we are never bored; but yet we are so conceited that we do not perceive how often we bore others.

We should only affect compassion, and carefully avoid having any.

Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.

A man often thinks he rules himself, when all the while he is ruled and managed; and while his understanding directs one design, his affections imperceptibly draw him into another.

The great interests of man: air and light, the joy of having a body, the voluptuousness of looking.