There are some persons who only disgust with their abilities, there are persons who please even with their faults.

Our virtues are often, in reality, no better than vices disguised.

There is such a thing as a general revolution which changes the taste of men as it changes the fortunes of the world.

The greatest part of intimate confidences proceed from a desire either to be pitied or admired.

In misfortune we often mistake dejection for constancy; we bear it without daring to look on it; like cowards, who suffer themselves to be murdered without resistance.

We make promises to the extent that we hope-and keep them to the extent that we fear.

Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.