Disappointment, when it involves neither shame nor loss, is as good as success; for it supplies as many images to the mind, and as many topics to the tongue.

There are few so free from vanity as not to dictate to those who will hear their instructions with a visible sense of their own beneficence.

It is not true that people are naturally equal for no two people can be together for even a half an hour without one acquiring an evident superiority over the other.

To fix the thoughts by writing, and subject them to frequent examinations and reviews, is the best method of enabling the mind to detect its own sophisms, and keep it on guard against the fallacies which it practices on others

Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments.

I do not much wish well to discoveries, for I am always afraid they will end in conquest and robbery.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.