Those who ought to be secure from calumny are generally those who avoid it least.
Is it not astonishing that the love of repose keeps us in continual agitation?
We rise to fortune by successive steps; we descend by only one.
How many persons fancy they have experience simply because they have grown old!
Misers are very kind people: they amass wealth for those who wish their death.
To believe with certainty, we must begin with doubting.
Conscience warns us as a friend before it punishes us as a judge.
Nothing but religion is capable of changing pains into pleasures.
He who fears death dies every time he thinks of it.
It is hardly possible to suspect another without having in one's self the seeds of baseness the party is accused of.
Gaiety is the soul's health; sadness is its poison.
It is having in some measure a sort of wit to know how to use the wit of others.
The Word of God proves the truth of religion; the corruption of man, its necessity; government, its advantages.
Some like to understand what they believe in. Others like to believe in what they understand.
Politeness has been defined to be artificial good-nature; but we may affirm, with much greater propriety, that good-nature is natural politeness.
The earliest desire of succeeding is almost always a prognostic of success.
None are rash when they are not seen by anybody.
In all sorts of government man is made to believe himself free, and to be in chains.
A well-read fool is the most pestilent of blockheads; his learning is a flail which he knows not how to handle, and with which he breaks his neighbor's shins as well as his own. Keep a fellow of this description at arm's length, as you value the integrity of your bones.
I believe, indeed, that it is more laudable to suffer great misfortunes than to do great things.