The greatest evil which fortune can inflict on men is to endow them with small talents and great ambition.
— Luc de Clapiers
Great thoughts come from the heart.
Clarity is the counterbalance of profound thoughts.
One promises much, to avoid giving little.
You must rouse into people's consciousness their own prudence and strength, if you want to raise their character.
The idle always have a mind to do something.
Our failings sometimes bind us to one another as closely as could virtue itself.
The art of pleasing is the art of deception.
We should expect the best and the worst of mankind, as from the weather.
Clearness ornaments profound thoughts.
It is difficult to esteem a man as highly as he would wish.
The maxims of men reveal their characters.
Patience is the art of hoping.
To execute great things, one should live as though one would never die.
To possess taste, one must have some soul.
Vice stirs up war, virtue fights.
All grand thoughts come from the heart.
The greatest achievement of the human spirit is to live up to one's opportunities and make the most of one's resources.
There is nothing that fear and hope does not permit men to do.
The things we know best are the things we haven't been taught.
Those who can bear all can dare all.
Everyone is born sincere and die deceivers.
Wicked people are always surprised to find ability in those that are good.
One can not be just if one is not humane.
When a thought is too weak to be expressed simply, it should be rejected.
The wicked are always surprised to find ability in the good.
Indolence is the sleep of the mind.
Lazy people are always anxious to be doing something.
You are not born for fame if you don't know the value of time.
The most absurd and reckless aspirations have sometimes led to extraordinary success.
The law cannot equalize mankind in spite of nature.
Men sometimes feel injured by praise because it assigns a limit to their merit; few people are modest enough not to take offense that one appreciates them.
To achieve great things we must live as though we were never going to die.
Emotions have taught mankind to reason.
If people did not compliment one another there would be little society.
Obscurity is the realm of error.
Prosperity makes few friends.
The conscience of the dying belies their life.
The fool is like those people who think themselves rich with little.
The fruit derived from labor is the sweetest of pleasures.
