Nothing is so fierce but love will soften; nothing so sharp-sighted in other matters but it will throw a mist before its eyes.

Avarice is insatiable, and is always pushing on for more.

The common people do not judge of vice or virtue by morality or immorality, so much as by the stamp that is set upon it by men of figure.

Partiality in a parent is unlucky; for fondlings are in danger to be made fools.

The blessings of fortune are the lowest; the next are the bodily advantages of strength and health; but the superlative blessings, in fine, are those of the mind.

All duties are matters of conscience, with this restriction that a superior obligation suspends the force of an inferior one.

Some natures are so sour and ungrateful that they are never to be obliged.