He who reforms himself has done more towards reforming the public than a crowd or noisy, impotent patriots.

Those who speak always and those who never speak are equally unfit for friendship. A food proportion of the talent of listening and speaking is the base of social virtues.

Let the degree of egotism be the measure of confidence.

Desire is the uneasiness a man finds in himself upon the absence of anything whose present enjoyment carries the idea of delight with it.

He who is passionate and hasty is generally honest. It is your cool, dissembling hypocrite of whom you should beware.

The affectation of sanctity is a blotch on the face of piety.

The more honesty a man has, the less he affects the air of a saint.