The truest mark of being born with great qualities is to be born without envy.

It appears that nature has hid at the bottom of our hearts talents and abilities unknown to us. It is only the passions that have the power of bringing them to light, and sometimes give us views more true and more perfect than art could possibly do.

There is only one kind of love, but there are a thousand imitations.

Funeral pomp is more for the vanity of the living than for the honor of the dead.

In infants, levity is a prettiness; in men a shameful defect; but in old age, a monstrous folly.

For most men the love of justice is only the fear of suffering injustice.

Gratitude is like the good faith of traders: it maintains commerce, and we often pay, not because it is just to discharge our debts, but that we may more readily find people to trust us.