The habit of pleasing by flattery makes a language soft; the fear of offending by truth makes it circuitous and conventional.

A wise man will always be a Christian, because the perfection of wisdom is to know where lies tranquillity of mind and how to attain it, which Christianity teaches.

If in argument we can make a man angry with us, we have drawn him from his vantage ground and overcome him.

We cannot at once catch the applauses of the vulgar and expect the approbation of the wise.

I strove with none; for none was worth my strife.

A great man knows the value of greatness; he dares not hazard it, he will not squander it.

My thoughts are my company; I can bring them together, select them, detain them, dismiss them.