Weakness is the only fault that is incorrigible.
If we never flattered ourselves we should have but scant pleasure.
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.
Self-love is more cunning than the most cunning man in the world.
Men more easily renounce their interests than their tastes.
We are never so happy, nor so unhappy, as we suppose ourselves to be.