The flatterer does not think highly enough of himself or of others.

The shortest and best way to make your fortune is to let people see clearly that it is in their interest to promote yours.

He who excels in his art so as to carry it to the utmost height of perfection of which it is capable may be said in some measure to go beyond it: his transcendent productions admit of no appellations.

This great misfortune, to be incapable of solitude.

The same common sense which makes an author write good things, makes him dread they are not good enough to deserve reading.

If it be usual to be strongly impressed by things that are scarce, why are we so little impressed by virtue?

Dissimulation, even the most innocent in its nature, is ever productive of embarrassment; whether the design is evil or not artifice is always dangerous and almost inevitably disgraceful.