Your tribunal is seated in your own breast, why then should you seek it elsewhere? (p. 168). - Anne-Thérèse de Marguenat de Courcelles

Birth bestows less of honour than it demands; and to boast of ancestry is but to praise the merit of others. (p. 139).

Shame is a secret pride; and pride is an error with regard to one's own worth, and an injustice with regard to what one has a mind to appear to others. (p. 204).

We fancy frequently that we have no grudge but against the men, when indeed our malignity is owing to their places : persons in great posts never yet enjoyed them with the good liking of the world, which only begins to do them justice when they are out of place. (p. 148).