Some indeed there are who profess to despise all flattery, but even these are nevertheless to be flattered, by being told that they do despise it.

I will not be revenged, and this I owe to my enemy; but I will remember, and this I owe to myself.

Faults of the head are punished in this world, those of the heart in another; but as most of our vices are compound, so also is their punishment.

Contemporaries appreciate the person rather than their merit, posterity will regard the merit rather than the person.

Women do not transgress the bounds of decorum so often as men; but when they do, they go greater lengths.

There are three kinds of praise, that which we yield, that which we lend, and that which we pay. We yield it to the powerful from fear, we lend it to the weak from interest, and we pay it to the deserving from gratitude.

We are more inclined to hate one another for points on which we differ, than to love one another for points on which we agree. The reason perhaps is this: when we find others that agree with us, we seldom trouble ourselves to confirm that agreement; but when we chance on those who differ from us, we are zealous both to convince and to convert them. Our pride is hurt by the failure, and disappointed pride engenders hatred.