We are so blind that we know neither when to mourn, nor when to rejoice; our mirth and our sadness are nearly always false. - Montesquieu

Translation: I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should appear like a fool but be wise.

Translation: Horace and Aristotle told us of the virtues of their fathers, and the vices of their own time, and authors down through the centuries have told us the same. If they were right, men would now be bears.

"[245] "In large and populous cities," says the author of the Fable of the Bees, i, p. 133, "they wear clothes above their rank, and, consequently, have the pleasure of being esteemed by a vast majority, not as what they are, but what they appear to be.