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

The breeding we give young people is ordinarily but an additional self-love, by which we make them have a better opinion of themselves.

The greatest fault of a penetrating wit is to go beyond the mark.

Absence cools moderate passions, and inflames violent ones; just as the wind blows out candles, but kindles fires.

It is with certain good qualities as with the senses; those who have them not can neither appreciate nor comprehend them in others.

The force we use on ourselves, to prevent ourselves from loving, is often more cruel than the severest treatment at the hands of one loved.

Chance corrects us of many faults that reason would not know how to correct.