We are never either so fortunate or so misfortunate as we imagine.

There are few occasions when we should make a bad bargain by giving up the good on condition that no ill was said of us.

There are a great many simpletons who know themselves to be so, and who make a very cunning use of their own simplicity.

None deserve praise for being good who have not the spirit to be bad: goodness, for the most part, is nothing but indolence or weakness of will.

A man convinced of his own merit will accept misfortune as an honor, for thus can he persuade others, as well as himself, that he is a worthy target for the arrows of fate.

We may say of agreeableness, as distinct from beauty, that it consists in a symmetry of which we know not the rules, and a secret conformity of the features to each other, as also to the air and complexion of the person.

He who imagines he can do without the world deceives himself much; but he who fancies the world cannot do without him is still more mistaken.