Parsimony is enough to make the master of the golden mines as poor as he that has nothing; for a man may be brought to a morsel of bread by parsimony as well as profusion.

Death, whether it regards ourselves or others, appears less terrible in war than at home. The cries of women and children, friends in anguish, a dark room, dim tapers, priests and physicians, are what affect us the most on the death-bed. Behold us already more than half dead and buried.

The indulgence of revenge tends to make men more savage and cruel.

Who hath not courage to revenge will never find generosity to forgive.

Seldom do we talk of ourselves with success. If I condemn myself, more is believed than is expressed; if I praise myself, much less.

To a zealot every one of his own sect is a saint, while the most upright of a different sect are to him children of perdition.

Even dress is apt to inflame a man's opinion of himself.

The sordid meal of the Cynics contributed neither to their tranquillity nor to their modesty. Pride went with Diogenes into his tub; and there he had the presumption to command Alexander the haughtiest of all men.

When you descant on the faults of others, consider whether you be not guilty of the same. To gain knowledge of ourselves, the best way is to convert the imperfections of others into a mirror for discovering our own.

Nothing so uncertain as general reputation. A man injures me from humor, passion, or interest; hates me because he has injured me; and speaks ill of me because he hates me.

No man ever did a designed injury to another, but at the same time he did a greater to himself.

Custom is the great leveller. It corrects the inequality of fortune by lessening equally the pleasures of the prince and the pains of the peasant.

Such is the power of imagination, that even a chimerical pleasure in expectation affects us more than a solid pleasure in possession.

Luxury possibly may contribute to give bread to the poor; but if there were no luxury, there would be no poor.

Men are guided less by conscience than by glory; and yet the shortest way to glory is to be guided by conscience.

The truly generous is the truly wise, and he who loves not others lives unblest!

An agreeable figure and winning manner, which inspire affection without love, are always new. Beauty loses its relish, the graces never, after the longest acquaintance, they are no less agreeable than at first.

Every man, however little, makes a figure in his own eyes.