Though nature be ever so generous, yet can she not make a hero alone. Fortune must contribute her part too; and till both concur, the work cannot be perfected. 2.3K
Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking on. 560
However glorious an action in itself, it ought not to pass for great if it be not the effect of wisdom and intention. 571
Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them. 577
What men have called friendship is only a social arrangement, a mutual adjustment of interests, an interchange of services given and received; it is, in sum, simply a business from which those involved propose to derive a steady profit for their own self-love. 561
A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire. 881
In friendship as well as love, ignorance very often contributes more to our happiness than knowledge. 615
There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not. 483
Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires. 555
