The maxims of men reveal their characters.
In order to do great things, it is necessary to live as if one was never to die.
Men crowd into honorable careers without other vocation than their vanity, or at best their love of fame.
One promises much, to avoid giving little.
Hope animates the wise, and lures the presumptuous and indolent who repose inconsiderately on her promises.
Reason and emotion counsel and supplement each other. Whoever heeds only the one, and puts aside the other, recklessly deprives himself of a portion of the aid granted us for the regulation of our conduct.