Praise is a more ingenious, concealed, and subtle kind of flattery, that satisfies both the giver and the receiver, though by verydifferent ways. The one accepts it as a reward due to his merit; the other gives it that he may be looked upon as a just and discerning person.

There is no better proof of a man's being truly good than his desiring to be constantly under the observation of good men.

Our minds are lazier than our bodies.

The force we use on ourselves, to prevent ourselves from loving, is often more cruel than the severest treatment at the hands of one loved.

It is easier to know men in general, than men in particular.

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

Nothing is more contagious than example, and no man does any exceeding good or exceeding ill but it spawns new deeds of the same kind. The good we imitate through emulation, the ill through the malignity of our nature, which shame keeps locked up, but example sets free.