Fortune cures us of many faults that reason could not.

Ability wins us the esteem of the true men; luck, that of the people.

It's the height of folly to want to be the only wise one.

The secret of pleasing in conversation is not to explain too much everything; to say them half and leave a little for divination is a mark of the good opinion we have of others, and nothing flatters their self-love more.

It is no tragedy to do ungrateful people favors, but it is unbearable to be indebted to a scoundrel.

The thing that makes our friendships so short and changeable is that the qualities and dispositions of the soul are very hard to know, and those of the understanding and wit very easy.

A man would rather say evil of himself than say nothing.