It is a thorny undertaking, and more so than it seems, to follow a movement so wandering as that of our mind, to penetrate the opaque depths of its innermost folds, to pick out and immobilize the innumerable flutterings that agitate it.

Taking it all in all, I find it is more trouble to watch after money than to get it.

A man never speaks of himself without losing something. What he says in his disfavor is always beleived, but when he commends himself, he arouses mistrust.

Vice leaves repentance in the soul, like an ulcer in the flesh, which is always scratching and lacerating itself; for reason effaces all other griefs and sorrows, but it begets that of repentance.

We may so seize on virtue, that if we embrace it with an overgreedy and violent desire, it may become vicious.

The laws of conscience, which we pretend to be derived from nature, proceed from Custom.

Children's games are hardly games. Children are never more serious than when they play.