What we cut off from our other faults is very often but so much added to our pride.

There is great skill in knowing how to conceal one's skill.

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

It is the prerogative of great men only to have great defects.

We often shed tears that deceive ourselves after deceiving others.

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

That good disposition which boasts of being most tender is often stifled by the least urging of self-interest.