“If ordinary people complain that I speak too much of myself, I complain that they do not even think of themselves.”

“I had rather complain of ill-fortune than be ashamed of victory.”

“If I speak of myself in different ways, that is because I look at myself in different ways.”

“I do not care so much what I am to others as I care what I am to myself.”

“I do not think that there is so much wretchedness in us as vanity; we are not so much wicked as daft; we are not so much full of evil as of inanity; we are not so much pitiful as despicable.”

“I find I am much prouder of the victory I obtain over myself, when, in the very ardor of dispute, I make myself submit to my adversary’s force of reason, than I am pleased with the victory I obtain over him through his weakness.”

“I speak to the paper, as I speak to the first person I meet.”