The happiness and misery of men depend no less on temper than fortune.

It is often laziness and timidity that keep us within our duty while virtue gets all the credit.

Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils, but present evils triumph over it.

All women seem by nature to be coquettes.

The contempt of riches in philosophers was only a hidden desire to avenge their merit upon the injustice of fortune, by despising the very goods of which fortune had deprived them; it was a secret to guard themselves against the degradation of poverty, it was a back way by which to arrive at that distinction which they could not gain by riches.

What we take for high-mindedness is very often no other than ambition well disguised, that scorns means interests, only to pursuegreater.

We do not praise others, ordinarily, but in order to be praised ourselves.