The moderation of men in the most exalted fortunes is a desire to be thought above those things that have raised them so high.

Passion often makes a fool of the cleverest man and often makes the most foolish men clever

Were we perfectly acquainted with the object, we should never passionately desire it.

What men have called friendship is only a social arrangement, a mutual adjustment of interests, an interchange of services given and received; it is, in sum, simply a business from which those involved propose to derive a steady profit for their own self-love.

It is the prerogative of great men only to have great defects.

Youth is a perpetual intoxication; it is a fever of the mind.

However much we may distrust men's sincerity, we always believe they speak to us more sincerely than to others.