Truth does less good in the world than its appearances do harm.

The happiness and unhappiness of men depends as much on their ethics as on fortune.

Fortune converts everything to the advantage of her favorites.

It requires greater virtues to support good fortune than bad.

There are two sorts of constancy in love one arises from continually discovering in the loved person new subjects for love, the other arises from our making a merit of being constant.

Flattery is false money, which would not be current were it not for our vanity.

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