An egotist will always speak of himself, either in praise or in censure, but a modest man ever shuns making himself the subject of his conversation.

False modesty is the masterpiece of vanity: showing the vain man in such an illusory light that he appears in the reputation of the virtue quite opposite to the vice which constitutes his real character; it is a deceit.

It requires more than mere genius to be an author.

Caprice in women often infringes upon the rules of decency.

The mind, like all other things, will become impaired, the sciences are its food,--they nourish, but at the same time they consume it.

An assembly of the states, a court of justice, shows nothing so serious and grave as a table of gamesters playing very high; a melancholy solicitude clouds their looks; envy and rancor agitate their minds while the meeting lasts, without regard to friendship, alliances, birth or distinctions.

Women are extreme; they are better than men, or worse.