It is impossible to love a second time what we have really ceased to love.

How can we be answerable for what we shall want in the future, since we have no clear idea of what we want now?

The defects of the mind, like those of the face, grow worse with age.

What renders other people's vanity insufferable is that it wounds our own.

That which makes the vanity of others unbearable to us is that which wounds our own.

There are various sorts of curiosity; one is from interest, which makes us desire to know that which may be useful to us; and the other, from pride which comes from the wish to know what others are ignorant of.

Love of glory, fear of shame, greed for fortune, the desire to make life agreeable and comfortable, and the wish to depreciate others - all of these are often the causes of the bravery that is spoken so highly of by men.