Imagination does not enable us to invent as many different contradictions as there are by nature in every heart.

Perfect valour consists in doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone.

We get so much in the habit of wearing disguises before others that we finally appear disguised before ourselves.

Moderation resembles temperance. We are not so unwilling to eat more, as afraid of doing ourselves harm by it.

It is not always from valor or from chastity that men are brave, and women chaste.

People would not long remain in social life if they were not the dupes of each other.

Spiritual health is no more stable than bodily; and though we may seem unaffected by the passions we are just as liable to be carried away by them as to fall ill when in good health.