"That good disposition which boasts of being most tender is often stifled by the least urging of self-interest."

"Some people displease with merit, and others' very faults and defects are pleasing."

"Some men are like ballads, that are in everyone's mouth a little while."

"Some counterfeits reproduce so very well the truth that it would be a flaw of judgment not to be deceived by them."

"Some accidents there are in life that a little folly is necessary to help us out of."

"Self-interest makes some people blind, and others sharp-sighted."

"Repentance is not so much remorse for what we have done as the fear of the consequences."

"Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side."

"Pride, which inspires us with so much envy, is sometimes of use toward the moderating of it too."

"It is not in the power of even the most crafty dissimulation to conceal love long, where it really is, nor to counterfeit it long where it is not."

"It is not enough to have great qualities; We should also have the management of them."

"It is from a weakness and smallness of mind that men are opinionated; and we are very loath to believe what we are not able to comprehend."

"It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves."

"It is a great act of cleverness to be able to conceal one's being clever."

"If we had no faults of our own, we should not take half so much satisfaction in observing those of other people."

"If we did not flatter ourselves, the flattery of others could never harm us."

"If there be a love pure and free from the admixture of our other passions, it is that which lies hidden in the bottom of our heart, and which we know not ourselves."

"Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue."

"However greatly we distrust the sincerity of those we converse with, yet still we think they tell more truth to us than to anyone else."

"However glorious an action in itself, it ought not to pass for great if it be not the effect of wisdom and intention."

"How is it that we remember the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not remember how often we have recounted it to the same person?"

"Heat of blood makes young people change their inclinations often, and habit makes old ones keep to theirs a great while."

"He is not to pass for a man of reason who stumbles upon reason by chance but he who knows it and can judge it and has a true taste for it."

"Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them."