We are less hurt by the contempt of fools than by the lukewarm approval of men of intelligence.

The generality of men are so bound within the sphere of their circumstances that they have not even the courage to get out of them through their ideas, and if we see a few whom, in a way, speculation over great things makes incapable of mean ones, we find still more with whom the practice of small things takes away the feeling for great ones.

Reason deceives us more often than does nature.

Wit does not take the place of knowledge.

As a house implies a builder, and a garment a weaver, and a door a carpenter, so does the existence of the Universe imply a Creator.

It is a great sign of mediocrity to praise always moderately.

The art of pleasing is the art of deception.