Weak people cannot be sincere.

Gratitude, in most men, is only a strong and secret hope of greater favors.

That man, we may be sure, is a person of true worth, whom those who envy him most are yet forced to praise.

We are nearer loving those who hate us than those who love us more than we wish.

If we are to judge of love by its consequences, it more nearly resembles hatred than friendship.

Even the most disinterested love is, after all, but a kind of bargain, in which self-love always proposes to be the gainer one wayor another.

Truth does not do as much good in the world as its imitations do harm.