Great souls are not those who have fewer passions and more virtues than others, but only those who have greater designs.

We do not wish ardently for what we desire only through reason.

There are very few things impossible in themselves; and we do not want means to conquer difficulties so much as application and resolution in the use of means.

Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy they are, who already possess it.

The smallest fault of women who give themselves up to love is to love.

Everyone blames his memory, no one blames his judgment.

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.