Clemency, which we make a virtue of, proceeds sometimes from vanity, sometimes from indolence, often from fear, and almost always from a mixture of all three.

There is a sort of love whose very excessiveness prevents the lover's being jealous.

We do not wish ardently for what we desire only through reason.

We are never so happy, nor so unhappy, as we suppose ourselves to be.

Our actions are like the terminations of verses, which we rhyme as we please.

The hunger for applause is the source for all conscious literature and heroism

Many men are contemptuous of riches; few can give them away.