STANISLAUS LESZCZYNSKI

Have the courage to face a difficulty lest it kick you harder than you bargain for.

To believe with certainty, we must begin with doubting.

Affectation discovers sooner what one is than it makes known what one would fain appear to be.

The instability of our tastes is the occasion of the irregularity of our lives.

Is it not astonishing that the love of repose keeps us in continual agitation?

Nothing but religion is capable of changing pains into pleasures.

He who fears death dies every time he thinks of it.

Misers are very kind people: they amass wealth for those who wish their death.

Those who ought to be secure from calumny are generally those who avoid it least.

Religion has nothing more to fear than not being sufficiently understood.

There are few defects in our nature so glaring as not to be veiled from observation by politeness and good-breeding.

Science when well-digested is nothing but good sense and reason.

None are rash when they are not seen by anybody.

It is having in some measure a sort of wit to know how to use the wit of others.

To be vain of one's rank or place is to show that one is below it.

Genius speaks only to genius.

In all sorts of government man is made to believe himself free, and to be in chains.

I believe, indeed, that it is more laudable to suffer great misfortunes than to do great things.

There are few persons of greater worth than their reputation; but how many are there whose worth is far short of their reputation!

The earliest desire of succeeding is almost always a prognostic of success.

When the truth offends no one it should come from our lips as naturally as the air we breathe.

We rise to fortune by successive steps; we descend by only one.

A well-read fool is the most pestilent of blockheads; his learning is a flail which he knows not how to handle, and with which he breaks his neighbor's shins as well as his own. Keep a fellow of this description at arm's length, as you value the integrity of your bones.

How many persons fancy they have experience simply because they have grown old!

I know no real worth but that tranquil firmness which seeks dangers by duty, and braves them without rashness.