We often do shallow good in order to accomplish evil with impunity.

That good disposition which boasts of being most tender is often stifled by the least urging of self-interest.

Vices are ingredients of virtues just as poisons are ingredients of remedies. Prudence mixes and tempers them and uses them effectively against life's ills.

The shame that arises from praise which we do not deserve often makes us do things we should otherwise never have attempted.

Envy is more irreconcilable than hatred.

There is a kind of elevation which does not depend on fortune; it is a certain air which distinguishes us, and seems to destine us for great things; it is a price which we imperceptibly set upon ourselves.

What men call friendship is no more than a partnership, a mutual care of interests, an exchange of favors - in a word, it is a sort of traffic, in which self-love ever proposes to be the gainer.