Wine displays every little spot of the soul in its utmost deformity.

The talent of turning men into ridicule, and exposing to laughter those one converses with, is the qualification of little ungenerous tempers.

The memory is perpetually looking back when we have nothing present to entertain us. It is like those repositories in animals that are filled with food, on which they may ruminate when their present pastures fail.

Nothing that isn't a real crime makes a man appear so contemptible and little in the eyes of the world as inconsistency.

Contentment produces, in some measure, all those effects which the alchemist usually ascribes to what he calls the philosopher's stone; and if it does not bring riches, it does the same thing by banishing the desire for them.

Friendships, in general, are suddenly contracted; and therefore it is no wonder they are easily dissolved.

A man’s first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart.