Some weak people are so sensible of their weakness as to be able to make a good use of it.

We acknowledge that we should not talk of our wives; but we seem not to know that we should talk still less of ourselves.

Humility is often only the putting on of a submissiveness by which men hope to bring other people to submit to them; it is a morecalculated sort of pride, which debases itself with a design of being exalted; and though this vice transform itself into a thousand several shapes, yet the disguise is never more effectual nor more capable of deceiving the world than when concealed under a form of humility.

We are more often treacherous through weakness than through calculation.

Selfishness is the grand moving principle of nine-tenths of our actions.

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.

Our aversion to lying is commonly a secret ambition to make what we say considerable, and have every word received with a religious respect.