Nothing is more ridiculous in old people that were once good-looking, than to forget that they are not so still.

How can we be answerable for what we shall want in the future, since we have no clear idea of what we want now?

The contempt of riches in the philosophers was a concealed desire of revenging on fortune the injustice done to their merit, by despising the good she denied them.

Pride does not wish to owe and vanity does not wish to pay.

Conceit causes more conversation than wit.

There is a form of eminence which does not depend on fate; it is an air which sets us apart and seems to prtend great things; it is the value which we unconsciously attach to ourselves; it is the quality which wins us deference of others; more than birth, position, or ability, it gives us ascendance.

Pity is often a reflection of our own evils in the ills of others. It is a delicate foresight of the troubles into which we may fall.