The man that thinks he loves his mistress for her own sake is mightily mistaken.

Jealousy is in some measure just and reasonable, since it merely aims at keeping something that belongs to us or we think belongsto us, whereas envy is a frenzy that cannot bear anything that belongs to others.

Second-rate minds usually condemn everything beyond their grasp.

It is worth nothing to be young without being beautiful, nor to be beautiful without being young.

We are not fond of praising, and never praise any one except from interested motives. Praise is a clever, concealed, and delicate flattery, which gratifies in different ways the giver and the receiver. The one takes it as a recompense of his merit, and the other bestows it to display his equity and discernment.

To establish oneself in the world, one does all one can to seem established there already.

We may seem great in an employment below our worth, but we very often look little in one that is too big for us.