There is a kind of love, the excess of which forbids jealousy.

We always like those who admire us.

Eloquence: saying the proper thing and stopping.

The man that thinks he loves his mistress for her own sake is mightily mistaken.

Idleness and constancy fix the mind to what it finds easy and agreeable. This habit always confines and cramps up our knowledge; and no one has ever taken the trouble to stretch and carry his understanding as far as it could go.

L'absence diminue les mediocres passions, et augmente les grandes,comme le vent eteint les bougies, et allume le feu. Absence diminishes commonplace passions, and increases great ones, as wind extinguishes candles and kindles fire.

It is easier to understand mankind in general than any individual man.