Nothing should lessen our satisfaction with ourselves as much as when we notice that we disapprove of something at one time that we approve of at another time.

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.

The thing that makes our friendships so short and changeable is that the qualities and dispositions of the soul are very hard to know, and those of the understanding and wit very easy.

The surest proof of being endowed with noble qualities is to be free from envy.

One is never as happy or as unhappy as one thinks.

Our distrust of another justifies his deceit.

It is much easier to seem fitted for posts we do not fill than for those we do.