Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.

Those who are incapable of committing great crimes do not readily suspect them in others.

It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible.

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.

The applause we give those who are new to society often proceeds from a secret envying of those already established.

That which makes the vanity of others unbearable to us is that which wounds our own.

We do not wish ardently for what we desire only through reason.