A man, in order to establish himself in the world, does everything he can to appear established there.

The most ingenious men continually pretend to condemn tricking--but this is often done that they may use it more conveniently themselves, when some great occasion or interest offers itself to them.

Few things are needed to make a wise man happy; nothing can make a fool content; that is why most men are miserable.

It is a common fault never to be satisfied with our fortune, nor dissatisfied with our understanding.

Of all our faults, the one we avow most easily is idleness; we persuade ourselves that it is allied to all the peaceable virtues,and as for the others, that it does not destroy them utterly, but only suspends the exercise of their functions.

In the misfortunes of our best friends we always find something not altogether displeasing to us.

Most of our faults are more pardonable than the means we use to conceal them.