Happiness is in the taste, and not in the things.
Great and glorious events which dazzle the beholder are represented by politicians as the outcome of grand designs whereas they are usually products of temperaments and passions.
For most men the love of justice is only the fear of suffering injustice.
We are never so happy, nor so unhappy, as we suppose ourselves to be.
There is such a thing as a general revolution which changes the taste of men as it changes the fortunes of the world.
True bravery is shown by performing without witness what one might be capable of doing before all the world.
The measure of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it.
We often do shallow good in order to accomplish evil with impunity.
The greatest of all gifts is the power to estimate things at their true worth.
It is with certain good qualities as with the senses; those who have them not can neither appreciate nor comprehend them in others.
Our minds are lazier than our bodies.
Nature creates ability; luck provides it with opportunity.
The violence done us by others is often less painful than that which we do to ourselves.
The world more often rewards the appearances of merit than merit itself.
It is only persons of firmness that can have real gentleness. Those who appear gentle are, in general, only a weak character, which easily changes into asperity.
We never desire strongly, what we desire rationally.
Women know not the whole of their coquetry.
The greatest miracle of love is the cure of coquetry.
It seems that nature, which has so wisely disposed our bodily organs with a view to our happiness, has also bestowed on us pride, to spare us the pain of being aware of our imperfections.
Hope and fear are inseparable.