Every man prefers belief to the exercise of judgment.

No evil is without its compensation. The less money, the less trouble; the less favor, the less envy. Even in those cases which put us out of wits, it is not the loss itself, but the estimate of the loss that troubles us.

The tempest threatens before it comes; houses creak before they fall.

To be able to endure odium is the first art to be learned by those who aspire to power.

Drunkenness is simply voluntary insanity.

Death is the wish of some, the relief of many, and the end of all. It sets the slave at liberty, carries the banished man home, and places all mortals on the same level, insomuch that life itself were a punishment without it.

It is another's fault if he be ungrateful, but it is mine if I do not give. To find one thankful man, I will oblige a great many that are not so.