Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers.

There are some faults which, when well managed, make a greater figure than virtue itself.

Kings do with men as with pieces of money; they give them what value they please, and we are obliged to receive them at their current and not at their real value.

Indolence, languid as it is, often masters both passions and virtues.

True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen.

A clever man reaps some benefit from the worst catastrophe, and a fool can turn even good luck to his disadvantage.

Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy they are, who already possess it.