Virtue were a kind of misery if fame were all the garland that crowned her.

Gold is the fool's curtain, which hides all his defects from the world.

God has made no one absolute. The rich depend on the poor, as well as the poor on the rich. The world is but a magnificent building; all the stones are gradually cemented together. No one subsists by himself.

It is a most unhappy state to be at a distance with God: man needs no greater infelicity than to be left to himself.

It is rare to see a rich man religious; for religion preaches restraint, and riches prompt to unlicensed freedom.

If ever I should affect injustice, it would be in this, that I might do courtesies and receive none.

Pleasures can undo a man at any time, if yielded to.