Sometimes there is equal or more ability in knowing how to use good advice than there is in giving it.

We may seem great in an employment below our worth, but we very often look little in one that is too big for us.

The generality of friends puts us out of conceit with friendship; just as the generality of religious people puts us out of conceit with religion.

We seldom find any person of good sense, except those who share our opinions.

If we had no faults, we would not derive so much pleasure from noting those of other people.

When our vices leave us, we like to imagine it is we who are leaving them.

We label judges with having the meanest motives, and yet we desire that our reputation and fame should depend upon the judgment of men, who are all, either from their jealousy or preoccupation or want of intelligence, opposed to us - and yet despite their bias, just for the sake of making these men decide in our favor, we peril in so many ways both our peace and our life.