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.

Gravity is a mysterious carriage of the body invented to cover the defects of the mind.

True friendship destroys envy, and true love destroys coquetterie.

Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy they are, who already possess it.

Virtues lose themselves in self-interest, as rivers in the sea.

Our greediness so often troubles us, making us run after so many things at the same time, that while we too eagerly look after the least we miss the greatest.

Silence is the safest course for any man to adopt who distrust himself.