We are never so happy, nor so unhappy, as we suppose ourselves to be.

The greatest part of our faults are more excusable than the methods that are commonly taken to conceal them.

A man's worth has its season, like fruit.

The heart of man ever finds a constant succession of passions, so that the destroying and pulling down of one proves generally tobe nothing else but the production and the setting up of another.

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

Nothing is so capable of diminishing self-love as the observation that we disapprove at one time what we approve at another.

It is a common fault never to be satisfied with our fortune, nor dissatisfied with our understanding.