It cannot be a vice in men to be sensible of their strength.

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

There does not exist a man sufficiently intelligent never to be tiresome.

You can purchase the mind of Pascal for a crown. Pleasures even cheaper are sold to those who give themselves up to them. It is only luxuries and objects of caprice that are rare and difficult to obtain; unfortunately they are the only things that touch the curiosity and taste of ordinary men.

Clearness ornaments profound thoughts.

We ought never to be afraid to repeat an ancient truth, when we feel that we can make it more striking by a neater turn, or bring it alongside of another truth, which may make it clearer, and thereby accumulate evidence. It belongs to the inventive faculty to see clearly the relative state of things, and to be able to place them in connection; but the discoveries of ages gone by belong less to their first authors than to those who make them practically useful to the world.

The favorites of fortune or of fame topple from their pedestals before our eyes without diverting us from ambition.