There is an unfortunate disposition in a man to attend much more to the faults of his companions which offend him, than to their perfections which please him.

Our companions please us less from the charms we find in their conversation than from those they find in ours.

The world is an excellent judge in general, but a very bad one in particular.

Good-humor is allied to generosity, ill-humor to meanness.

I hardly know a sight that raises one's indignation more than that of an enlarged soul joined to a contracted fortune; unless it be that so much more common one, of a contracted soul joined to an enlarged fortune.

We laugh heartily to see a whole flock of sheep jump because one did so. Might not one imagine that superior beings do the same, and for exactly the same reason?

Unbecoming forwardness oftener proceeds from ignorance than impudence.