The gallantry of the mind consists in agreeable flattery.

No matter how much care we put into hiding our passions under the appearances of devotion and honor, they can always be seen to peer out through these covers.

Too great cleverness is but deceptive delicacy, true delicacy is the most substantial cleverness.

Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.

Fortune converts everything to the advantage of her favorites.

To understand matters rightly we should understand their details; and as that knowledge is almost infinite, our knowledge is always superficial and imperfect.

A man, in order to establish himself in the world, does everything he can to appear established there.