No one is more inclined to envy than people who humble themselves.
No one is more flattered than the ambitious who wanted to be first, but failed.
Experience teaches us that man is master of nothing less than his own language.
Understanding is the beginning of agreement.
And to subdue courage and to subdue fear requires equally great strength or fortitude of spirit.
Jealousy is someone's care to enjoy what they have acquired and to keep it.
The free man thinks of nothing so little as death, and his wisdom lies in the meditation of life, and not of death.
Paul's words about Peter tell us more about Paul than about Peter.
Compassion is a dissatisfaction that accompanies the idea of an evil that has happened to someone that we imagine ourselves to be similar to.
Reference to an authority is not an argument.
Fear arises as a result of weakness of spirit.
Fear is the cause by which superstition is born, maintained and spread.
The drive to do or not do something just to please other people is called ambition.
Shame is a well-known form of sadness that arises in man when he sees that his deeds are despised by others.
Happiness is not a reward for virtue, but virtue itself; we do not delight in happiness because we have tamed our passions, but on the contrary, delight in happiness makes us able to tame them.
He who is easily moved by compassion, and is moved by the unhappiness or tears of others, repents at last, as we, being under the influence of the affections, easily yield to false tears.
The free man will never pretend, he will always be honest.
The man who is guided only by emotions or opinions is different from the man who is guided by reason. The first does not know, without his will, what he is doing, the second only does what he considers important in life. Therefore, I call the first a slave, and the second, free.
The man who knows what shame is has the desire to live honestly.
Ambition is a desire for excessive glory.
What if the church was a cave not only for the dead but also for the living?
The diseases of old age weaken our connection with life.
Most marriages are unhappy because the young wives weave nets when they should be tending to the cage.
It happens that I read a book with pleasure and at the same time hate its author.
In the eyes of the world, you will only be young and beautiful for a few years; and in the husband's eyes, only a few months.
There is nothing in the world more consistent than inconsistency.
In my youth, it seemed to me that everyone, like me, talked only about the latest play.
In the art of eloquence, the greatest craft lies in concealing your craft.
In quarrels, as in war, the weaker side lights fires and makes a lot of noise to make the enemy think that it is stronger than it really is.
In old age, the learned man is busy trying to get rid of the imprudences committed in his youth.