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

What renders other people's vanity insufferable is that it wounds our own.

When a man is in love, he doubts, very often, what he most firmly believes.

Men more easily renounce their interests than their tastes.

The exceeding delight we take in talking about ourselves should give us cause to fear that we are giving but very little pleasureto our listeners.

On why I don't trust democracy without extremely powerful systems of accountability and recall What seems to be generosity is often only disguised ambition - which despises small interests to gain great ones.

If we resist our passions, it is more due to their weakness than our strength.