The exact contrary of what is generally believed is often the truth.

You think him to be your dupe; if he feigns to be so who is the greater dupe, he or you?

It is very rare to find ground which produces nothing; if it is not covered with flowers, with fruit trees and grains, it produces briers and pines. It is the same with man; if he is not virtuous, he becomes vicious.

Eminent station makes great men more great, and little ones less.

The nearer we come to great men the more clearly we see that they are only men. They rarely seem great to their valets.

Life is a kind of sleep: old men sleep longest, nor begin to wake but when they are to die.

One must laugh before one is happy, or one may die without ever laughing at all.