The passions are the only orators which always persuade.

Love of glory, fear of shame, greed for fortune, the desire to make life agreeable and comfortable, and the wish to depreciate others - all of these are often the causes of the bravery that is spoken so highly of by men.

Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking on.

Familiarity is a suspension of almost all the laws of civility, which libertinism has introduced into society under the notion of ease.

There is a kind of love, the excess of which forbids jealousy.

Pride does not wish to owe and vanity does not wish to pay.

Extreme boredom provides its own antidote.