Society punishes not the vices of its members, but their detection.

Grief is, of all the passions, the one that is the most ingenious and indefatigable in finding food for its own subsistence.

Modern historians are all would-be philosophers; who, instead of relating facts as they occurred, give us their version, or rather perversions of them, always colored by their political prejudices, or distorted to establish some theory . . .

Men are capable of making great sacrifices, who are not willing to make the lesser ones, on which so much of the happiness of life depends. The great sacrifices are seldom called for, but the minor ones are in daily requisition; and the making them with cheerfulness and grace enhances their value.

Borrowed thoughts, like borrowed money, only show the poverty of the borrower.

The most certain mode of making people content with us is to make them content with themselves.

Mountains appear more lofty the nearer they are approached, but great men resemble them not in this particular.