We are almost always wearied in the company of persons with whom we are not permitted to be weary.

If one judges love by the majority of its effects, it is more like hatred than like friendship.

There are few people more convinced of their own genius than those who complain of how stupid they are.

Old people love to give good advice; it compensates them for their inability to set a bad example.

The gratitude of most men is but a secret desire of receiving greater benefits.

The health of the soul is as precarious as that of the body; for when we seem secure from passions, we are no less in danger of their infection than we are of falling ill when we appear to be well.

Self-love, as it happens to be well or ill conducted, constitutes virtue and vice.