Wealth does not teach us to transcend the desire for wealth. The possession of many goods does not bring the repose of not desiring them.

Study and research into truth often only serves to make us see by experience our natural ignorance.

There is a certain imperiousness, in the manner of speaking and in actions, which makes itself felt everywhere, and soon wins attention and respect. This commanding quality is useful in all affairs, and even for obtaining what we ask for.

Social intercourse, even friendship among most people, is a merely a business arrangement that lasts only so long as there is need.

Honest and sincere acts mislead the wicked and cause them to lose their path to their own goals, because mean-spirited people usually believe that people never act without deceit.

We so love all new and unusual things that we even derive a secret pleasure from the saddest and most tragic events, both because of their novelty and because of the natural malignity that exists within us.

It is neither a great praise nor a great blame when people say a tendency is in or out of fashion. If a tendency is as it should be at one time, it is always as it should be.