The health of the soul is as precarious as that of the body; for when we seem secure from passions, we are no less in danger of their infection than we are of falling ill when we appear to be well.

All the passions are nothing else than different degrees of heat and cold of the blood.

We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.

Our actions are like the terminations of verses, which we rhyme as we please.

It is more often from pride than from defective understanding that people oppose established opinions: they find the best places taken in the good party and are reluctant to accept inferior ones.

There are more defects in temperament than in the mind.

The passions often engender their contraries.