Loud indignation against vice often stands for virtue in the eyes of bigots.

The true worth of a soul is revealed as much by the motive it attributes to the actions of others as by its own deeds.

It is almost impossible to find those who admire us entirely lacking in taste.

The weak-minded man is the slave of his vices and the dupe of his virtues.

The most exacting jailer is our own conscience.

The politics of courtiers resemble their shadows; they cringe and turn with the sun of the day.

What we gain by experience is not worth that we lose in illusion