When we exaggerate our friends' tenderness towards us, it is often less from gratitude than from a desire to exhibit our own virtue.

Jealousy is the greatest of all evils, and the one that arouses the least pity in the person who causes it.

Conceit causes more conversation than wit.

Hope is the last thing that dies in man; and though it be exceedingly deceitful, yet it is of this good use to us, that while we are traveling through life it conducts us in an easier and more pleasant way to our journey's end.

The man that thinks he loves his mistress for her own sake is mightily mistaken.

A great many men's gratitude is nothing but a secret desire to hook in more valuable kindnesses hereafter.

Innocence does not find near so much protection as guilt.