True bravery is shown by performing without witness what one might be capable of doing before all the world.

Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.

It is much better to learn to deal with the ills we have now than to speculate on those that may befall us.

Even the most disinterested love is, after all, but a kind of bargain, in which self-love always proposes to be the gainer one wayor another.

We are much mistaken if we think that men are always brave from a principle of valor, or women chaste from a principle of modesty.

Vanity, shame, and above all disposition, often make men brave and women chaste.

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.