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

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

If you should escape the censure of others, hope not to escape your own.

Even dress is apt to inflame a man's opinion of himself.

To a zealot every one of his own sect is a saint, while the most upright of a different sect are to him children of perdition.

An agreeable figure and winning manner, which inspire affection without love, are always new. Beauty loses its relish, the graces never, after the longest acquaintance, they are no less agreeable than at first.

Ridicule, which chiefly arises from pride, a selfish passion, is but at best a gross pleasure, too rough an entertainment for those who are highly polished and refined.