Jealousy is in some measure just and reasonable, since it merely aims at keeping something that belongs to us or we think belongsto us, whereas envy is a frenzy that cannot bear anything that belongs to others.

It is a mistake to imagine, that the violent passions only, such as ambition and love, can triumph over the rest. Idleness, languid as it is, often masters them all; she influences all our designs and actions, and insensibly consumes and destroys both passions and virtues.

One man may be more cunning than another, but no one can be more cunning than all the world.

We often make use of envenomed praise, that reveals on the rebound, as it were, defects in those praised which we dare not exposeany other way.

Loyalty is in most people only a ruse used by self-interest to attract confidence.

A wise man thinks it more advantageous not to join the battle than to win.

True eloquence consists in saying all that should be said, and that only.