Les biens et les maux qui nous arrivent ne nous touchent pas selon leur grandeur, mais selon notre sensibilité. - François de La Rochefoucauld

There is merit without attainment, but no attainment without some merit.

All men want to be different, and to be greater than they are; they seek for an air other than their own, and a mind different from what they possess; they take their style and manner at chance. They make experiments upon themselves without considering that what suits one person will not suit everyone, that there is no universal rule for taste or manners, and that there are no good copies.

The philosophers, and Seneca above all, have not done away with men's crimes through their precepts; all they have done is to use them to build up their own pride