Our concern for the loss of our friends is not always from a sense of their worth, but rather of our own need of them and that we have lost some who had a good opinion of us.

Whatever pretended causes we may blame our afflictions upon, it is often nothing but self-interest and vanity that produce them.

Women can less easily surmount their coquetry than their passions.

The moderation of men in the most exalted fortunes is a desire to be thought above those things that have raised them so high.

Love often leads on to ambition, but seldom does one return from ambition to love.

Numberless arts appear foolish whose secret motives are most wise and weighty.

The only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us.