Most men expose themselves in battle enough to save their honor, few wish to do so more than sufficiently, or than is necessary to make the design for which they expose themselves succeed.

Whatever pretext we may give for our affections, often it is only interest and vanity which cause them.

Idleness and constancy fix the mind to what it finds easy and agreeable. This habit always confines and cramps up our knowledge; and no one has ever taken the trouble to stretch and carry his understanding as far as it could go.

We often select envenomed praise which, by a reaction upon those we praise, shows faults we could not have shown by other means.

Women can more easily conquer their passion than their coquetterie.

The passions are the only orators that always persuade: they are, as it were, a natural art, the rules of which are infallible; and the simplest man with passion is more persuasive than the most eloquent without it.

Affected simplicity is an elegant imposture.