The most brilliant fortunes are often not worth the littleness required to gain them.

What often prevents our abandoning ourselves to a single vice is, our having more than one.

Men never desire anything very eagerly which they desire only by the dictates of reason.

There are more defects in temperament than in the mind.

It is not expedient or wise to examine our friends too closely; few persons are raised in our esteem by a close examination.

To establish ourselves in the world, we have to do all we can to appear established. To succeed in the world, we do everything we can to appear successful.

Love can no more continue without a constant motion than fire can; and when once you take hope and fear away, you take from it its very life and being.