Seldom do we talk of ourselves with success. If I condemn myself, more is believed than is expressed; if I praise myself, much less.

Were wisdom to be sold, she would give no price; every man is satisfied with the share he has from nature.

An infallible way to make your child miserable is to satisfy all his demands. Passion swells by gratification; and the impossibility of satisfying every one of his demands will oblige you to stop short at last, after he has become a little headstrong.

Violent passions are formed in solitude. In the busy world no object has time to make a deep impression.

We part more easily with what we possess, than with our expectations of what we wish for; because expectation always goes beyond enjoyment.

Beauty loses its relish; the graces never.

Whoever appears to have much cunning has in reality very little; being deficient in the essential article, which is, to hide cunning.