Our minds are lazier than our bodies.

Instead of considering that the worst way to persuade or please others is to try thus strongly to please ourselves, and that to listen well and to answer well are some of the greatest charms we can have in conversation.

Great and glorious events which dazzle the beholder are represented by politicians as the outcome of grand designs whereas they are usually products of temperaments and passions.

Commonplace minds usually condemn what is beyond the reach of their understanding.

The reason we bitterly hate those who deceive us is because they think they are cleverer than we are.

Death and the sun are not to be looked at steadily.

Satire is at once the most agreeable and most dangerous of mental qualities. It always pleases when it is refined, but we always fear those who use it too much; yet satire should be allowed when unmixed with spite, and when the person satirized can join in the satire.