It may be said that the vices await us in the journey of life like hosts with whom we must successively lodge; and I doubt whether experience would make us avoid them if we were to travel the same road a second time.

The good or the bad fortune of men depends not less upon their own dispositions than upon fortune.

Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.

Nothing is so contagious as example; never was there any considerable good or ill done that does not produce its like. We imitate good actions through emulation, and had ones through a malignity in our nature, which shame conceals, and example sets at liberty.

It is easier to understand mankind in general than any individual man.

Nothing is rarer than true good nature; they who are reputed to have it are generally only pliant or weak.

Gratitude is like credit; it is the backbone of our relations; frequently we pay our debts not because equity demands that we should, but to facilitate future loans.