Moderation is like sobriety: you would like to have some more, but are afraid of making yourself ill.

Great men should not have great faults.

Our repentances are generally not so much a concern and remorse for the harm we have done, as a fear of the harm we may have brought upon ourselves.

It is a species of coquetry to make a parade of never practising it.

None but great men are capable of having great flaws.

There is great skill in knowing how to conceal one's skill.

Only the great can afford to have great defects.