It's the height of folly to want to be the only wise one.

The secret of pleasing in conversation is not to explain too much everything; to say them half and leave a little for divination is a mark of the good opinion we have of others, and nothing flatters their self-love more.

We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves.

There may be talent without position, but there is no position without some kind of talent.

Fortunate persons hardly ever amend their ways: they always imagine that they are in the right when fortune upholds their bad conduct.

Praise is flattery, artful, hidden, delicate, which gratifies differently him who praises and him who is praised. The one takes it as the reward of merit, the other bestows it to show his impartiality and knowledge.

Self-interest makes some people blind, and others sharp-sighted.