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

The grace of novelty and the length of habit, though so very opposite to one another, yet agree in this, that they both alike keepus from discovering the faults of our friends.

Loyalty is in most people only a ruse used by self-interest to attract confidence.

All our qualities, whether good or bad, are unstable and ambiguous, and almost all are at the mery of chance.

That man, we may be sure, is a person of true worth, whom those who envy him most are yet forced to praise.

The most effectual way to be deceived is to believe oneself more cunning than one's neighbors.

Self-love increases or diminishes for us the good qualities of our friends, in proportion to the satisfaction we feel with them; and we judge of their merit by the manner in which they act towards us.