Selfishness is the grand moving principle of nine-tenths of our actions.

Considering how little the beginning or the ceasing to love is in our own power, it is foolish and unreasonable for the lover or his mistress to complain of one another's inconstancy.

Conceit causes more conversation than wit.

We are very far from always knowing our own wishes.

The contempt of riches in the philosophers was a concealed desire of revenging on fortune the injustice done to their merit, by despising the good she denied them.

Most men, like plants, possess hidden qualities which chance discovers.

It is easier to appear worthy of a position one does not hold, than of the office which one fills.