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

Great wants proceed from great wealth; but they are undutiful children, for they sink wealth down to poverty.

When you descant on the faults of others, consider whether you be not guilty of the same. To gain knowledge of ourselves, the best way is to convert the imperfections of others into a mirror for discovering our own.

No man ever did a designed injury to another, but at the same time he did a greater to 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.

Every man, however little, makes a figure in his own eyes.

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.