Propriety is the least of all laws, and the most observed.

Nature has concealed at the bottom of our minds talents and abilities of which we are not aware.

Nature seems at each man's birth to have marked out the bounds of his virtues and vices, and to have determined how good or how wicked that man shall be capable of being.

Narrowness of mind is often the cause of obstinacy; we do not easily believe beyond what we see.

We acknowledge our faults in order to repair by our sincerity the damage they have done us in the eyes of others.

We often bore others when we think we cannot possibly bore them.

The evil that we do does not attract to us so much persecution and hatred as our good qualities.