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

The moderation of men in the most exalted fortunes is a desire to be thought above those things that have raised them so high.

Men give away nothing so liberally as their advice.

The applause we give those who are new to society often proceeds from a secret envying of those already established.

There is a kind of love, the excess of which forbids jealousy.

If vanity does not entirely overthrow the virtues, at least it makes them all totter.

The cunningest dissimulation is when a man pretends to be caught in the traps others set for him; and a man is never so easily over-reached as when he is contriving to over-reach others.