We confess to little faults only to persuade ourselves we have no great ones.

There may be talent without position, but there is no position without some kind of talent.

There are crimes which become innocent and even glorious through their splendor, number and excess.

Some disguised deceits counterfeit truth so perfectly that not to be taken in by them would be an error of judgment.

We often boast that we are never bored; but yet we are so conceited that we do not perceive how often we bore others.

When we enlarge upon the affection our friends have for us, this is very often not so much out of a sense of gratitude as from a desire to persuade people of our own great worth, that can deserve so much kindness.

In the human heart there is a ceaseless birth of passions, so that the destruction of one is almost always the establishment of another.