Kings do with men as with pieces of money; they give them what value they please, and we are obliged to receive them at their current and not at their real value.

There are few people who would not be ashamed of being loved when they love no longer.

Those who occupy their minds with small matters, generally become incapable of greatness.

Great men should not have great faults.

There is a sort of love whose very excessiveness prevents the lover's being jealous.

It is more often from pride than from defective understanding that people oppose established opinions: they find the best places taken in the good party and are reluctant to accept inferior ones.

The man who leaves a woman best pleased with herself is the one whom she will soonest wish to see.