The slave has but one master, the ambitious man has as many as there are persons whose aid may contribute to the advancement of his fortunes.

We wish to constitute all the happiness, or, if that cannot be, the misery of the one we love.

It is easier to enrich ourselves with a thousand virtues, than to correct ourselves of a single fault.

To what excesses do men rush for the sake of religion, of whose truth they are so little persuaded, and to whose precepts they pay so little regard!

Favor exalts a man above his equals, but his dismissal from that favor places him below them.

The fears of old age disturb us, yet how few attain it?

We should laugh before being happy, for fear of dying without having laughed.