It is not always from valor or from chastity that men are brave, and women chaste.

There are heroes of wickedness, as there are of goodness.

Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy they are, who already possess it.

What is called generosity is usually only the vanity of giving; we enjoy the vanity more than the thing given.

Nature has concealed at the bottom of our minds talents and abilities of which we are not aware.

We never desire strongly, what we desire rationally.

Jealousy is the greatest of all evils, and the one that arouses the least pity in the person who causes it.