What makes false reckoning, as regards gratitude, is that the pride of the giver and the receiver cannot agree as to the value of the benefit.

Folly pursues us at all periods of our lives. If someone seems wise it is only because his follies are proportionate to his age and fortune.

We should gain more by letting the world see what we are than by trying to seem what we are not.

A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire.

It is with true love as it is with ghosts; everyone talks about it, but few have seen it.

The generality of friends puts us out of conceit with friendship; just as the generality of religious people puts us out of conceit with religion.

No matter how brilliant an action, it should not be considered great unless it was the result of a great motive.