Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.

Generally speaking, we would make a good bargain by renouncing all the good that people say of us, upon condition they would say no ill.

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.

Nothing is so contagious as example; never was there any considerable good or ill done that does not produce its like. We imitate good actions through emulation, and had ones through a malignity in our nature, which shame conceals, and example sets at liberty.

The hunger for applause is the source for all conscious literature and heroism

Our hopes, often though they deceive us, lead us pleasantly along the path of life.

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