Passion often makes fools of the wisest men and gives the silliest wisdom.

Sometimes there are accidents in our lives the skillful extrication from which demands a little folly.

Whatever distrust we may have of the sincerity of those who converse with us, we always believe they will tell us more truth than they do to others.

Friendship is only a reciprocal conciliation of interests, and an exchange of good offices; it is a species of commerce out of which self-love always expects to gain something.

Moral severity in women is only a dress or paint which they use to set off their beauty.

When a man must force himself to be faithful in his love, this is hardly better than unfaithfulness.

What makes the pain we feel from shame and jealousy so cutting is that vanity can give us no assistance in bearing them.