We arrive at the various stages of life quite as novices.

Hope, deceiving as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route.

If vanity does not entirely overthrow the virtues, at least it makes them all totter.

Love of glory, fear of shame, greed for fortune, the desire to make life agreeable and comfortable, and the wish to depreciate others - all of these are often the causes of the bravery that is spoken so highly of by men.

Virtue would not make such advances if there were not a little vanity to keep it company.

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

We label judges with having the meanest motives, and yet we desire that our reputation and fame should depend upon the judgment of men, who are all, either from their jealousy or preoccupation or want of intelligence, opposed to us - and yet despite their bias, just for the sake of making these men decide in our favor, we peril in so many ways both our peace and our life.