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

Perfect valour consists in doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone.

The daily employment of cunning marks a little mind, it generally happens that those who resort to it in one respect to protect themselves lay themselves open to attack in another.

We often shed tears that deceive ourselves after deceiving others.

One man may be more cunning than another, but no one can be more cunning than all the world.

There are heroes in evil as well as in good.

The greatest part of our faults are more excusable than the methods that are commonly taken to conceal them.