Philosophy ... should not pretend to increase our present stock, but make us economists of what we are possessed of.

A great source of calamity lies in regret and anticipation; therefore a person is wise who thinks of the present alone, regardless of the past or future.

The ingratitude of the world can never deprive us of the conscious happiness of having acted with humanity ourselves.

Every acknowledgment of gratitude is a circumstance of humiliation; and some are found to submit to frequent mortifications of this kind, proclaiming what obligations they owe, merely because they think it in some measure cancels the debt.

Persecution is a tribute the great must always pay for preeminence.

A modest woman, dressed out in all her finery, is the most tremendous object of the whole creation.

The soul may be compared to a field of battle, where the armies are ready every moment to encounter. Not a single vice but has a more powerful opponent, and not one virtue but may be overborne by a combination of vices.