Hatred and dishonesty generally arises from fear of being deceived. 
When we are sick our virtues and our vices are in abeyance. 
Despair puts the last touch not only to our misery but also to our weakness. 
Lazy people always intend to start doing something. 
It is of no use to possess a lively wit if it is not of the right proportion: the perfection of a clock is not to go fast, but to be accurate. 
You must rouse into people's consciousness their own prudence and strength, if you want to raise their character. 
Persevere in the fight, struggle on, do not let go, think magnanimously of man and life, for man is good and life is affluent and fruitful. 
Necessity embitters the evils which it cannot cure. 
We don't have enough time to premeditate our actions. 
Consciousness of our strength increases it. 
Activity makes more men's fortunes than cautiousness. 
Patience is the art of hoping. 
Servitude debases men to the point where they end up liking it. 
Clearness marks the sincerity of philosophers. 
We must not be timid from a fear of committing faults: the greatest fault of all is to deprive oneself of experience. 
We discover in ourselves what others hide from us and we recognize in others what we hide from ourselves ... 
If virtue were its own reward, it would no longer be a human quality, but supernatural. 
Necessity moderates more troubles than reason. 
Glory fills the world with virtue, and, like a beneficent sun, covers the whole earth with flowers and with fruits. 
The fool is like those people who think themselves rich with little. 
The counsels of the old, like the winter sun, shine, but give no heat. 
You must maintain strength of body in order to preserve strength of mind. 
The favorites of fortune or of fame topple from their pedestals before our eyes without diverting us from ambition. 
We are so presumptuous that we think we can separate our personal interest from that of humanity, and slander mankind without compromising ourselves. 
The counsels of old age give light without heat, like the sun in winter. 
It is a great sign of mediocrity to praise always moderately. 
The heaviest object in the world is the body of the woman you have ceased to love. 
It is sometimes easier to form a party than to attain by degrees the head of a party already formed. 
One can not be just if one is not humane. 
We have neither the strength nor the opportunity to accomplish all the good and all the evil which we design. 
We are forced to respect the gifts of nature, which study and fortune cannot give. 
Clearness is the ornament of deep thought. 
The tempests of youth are mingled with days of brilliant sunshine. 
The conscience of the dying belies their life. 
Truth is not so threadbare as speech, because fewer people can make use of it. 
If our friends do us a service, we think they owe it to us by their title of friend. We never think that they do not owe us their friendship. 
The maxims of men reveal their characters. 
Habit is everything, even in love. 
Give help rather than advice. 
Some authors regard morality in the same light as we regard modern architecture. Convenience is the first thing to be looked for. 
As it is natural to believe many things without proof, so, despite all proof, is it natural to disbelieve others. 
The young suffer less from their own errors than from the cautiousness of the old. 
Is it against justice or reason to love ourselves? And why is self-love always a vice? 
Our failings sometimes bind us to one another as closely as could virtue itself. 
You are not born for fame if you don't know the value of time. 
Vice foments war; it is virtue which actually fights. If there were no virtue, we would live in peace forever. 
Servitude degrades people to such a point that they come to like it. 
Those who can bear all can dare all. 
The law cannot equalize mankind in spite of nature. 
Consciousness of our powers augments them. 
A man who love only himself and his pleasures is vain, presumptuous, and wicked even from principle. 
It is no great advantage to possess a quick wit, if it is not correct; the perfection is not speed but uniformity. 
To possess taste, one must have some soul. 
Our opinion of others is not so variable as our opinion of ourselves. 
It cannot be a vice in men to be sensible of their strength. 
The greatest evil that fortune can bring to men is to endow them with feeble resources and yet to make them ambitious. 
Jealousy is the paralysis of love. 
Some of us would be greatly astonished to learn the reasons why others respect us. 
Excessive distrust is not less hurtfJul than its opposite. Most men become useless to him who is unwilling to risk being deceived. 
Few people are modest enough to be estimated at their true worth. 
The shortness of life cannot dissuade us from its pleasures, nor console us for its pains. 
We must expect everything and fear everything from time and from men. 
Wit does not take the place of knowledge. 
Obscurity is the kingdom of error. 
Hope deceives more men than cunning does. 
Hope is the only good thing that disillusion respects. 
There is nothing that fear and hope does not permit men to do. 
He who seeks fame by the practice of virtue asks only for what he deserves. 
Great men, like nature, use simple language. 