The desire which urges us to deserve praise strengthens our good qualities, and praise given to wit, valour, and beauty, tends to increase them.

The trust that we put in ourselves makes us feel trust in others.

In the intercourse of life, we please more by our faults than by our good qualities.

Few things are impossible in themselves: application to make them succeed fails us more often than the means.

Sometimes we think we dislike flattery, but it is only the way it is done that we dislike.

We are not fond of praising, and never praise any one except from interested motives. Praise is a clever, concealed, and delicate flattery, which gratifies in different ways the giver and the receiver. The one takes it as a recompense of his merit, and the other bestows it to display his equity and discernment.

Jealousy is nothing more than a fear of abandonment