In friendship, as in love, we are often more happy from the things we are ignorant of than from those we are acquainted with.

What renders other people's vanity insufferable is that it wounds our own.

It is great folly to wish to be wise all alone.

Were we faultless, we would not derive such satisfaction from remarking the faults of others.

Happiness is in the taste, and not in the things themselves; we are happy from possessing what we like, not from possessing what others like.

A lofty mind always thinks nobly, it easily creates vivid, agreeable, and natural fancies, places them in their best light, clothes them with all appropriate adornments, studies others' tastes, and clears away from its own thoughts all that is useless and disagreeable.

Too great cleverness is but deceptive delicacy, true delicacy is the most substantial cleverness.