Avarice often produces opposite results: there are an infinite number of persons who sacrifice their property to doubtful and distant expectations; others mistake great future advantages for small present interests.

Self-love makes our friends appear more or less deserving in proportion to the delight we take in them, and the measures by whichwe judge of their worth depend upon the manner of their conversing with us.

Love, all agreeable as it is, charms more by the fashion in which it displays itself, than by its own true merit.

Without humility, we keep all our defects; and they are only crusted over by pride, which conceals them from others, and often from ourselves.

We arrive at the various stages of life quite as novices.

True friendship destroys envy, and true love destroys coquetterie.

It is easy to be wise on behalf of others than to be so for ourselves.