Nature has concealed at the bottom of our minds talents and abilities of which we are not aware.

Jealousy lives upon doubts. It becomes madness or ceases entirely as soon as we pass from doubt to certainty.

There are no events so disastrous that adroit men do not draw some advantage from them, nor any so fortunate that the imprudent cannot turn to their own prejudice.

It is safer to do most men harm than to do them too much good.

Funeral pomp is more for the vanity of the living than for the honor of the dead.

However evil men may be they dare not be openly hostile to virtue, and so when they want to attack it they pretend to find it spurious , or impute crimes to it.

That good disposition which boasts of being most tender is often stifled by the least urging of self-interest.