The trust that we put in ourselves makes us feel trust in others.

Our repentances are generally not so much a concern and remorse for the harm we have done, as a fear of the harm we may have brought upon ourselves.

Constancy in love is a perpetual inconstancy which fixes our hearts successively to all the qualities of the person loved--sometimes admiring one and sometimes another above all the rest--so that this constancy roves as far as it can, and is no better than inconstancy, confined within the compass of one person.

The person giving the advice returns the confidence placed in him with a disinterested eagerness... and he is usually guided only by his own interest or reputation.

There are heroes in evil as well as in good.

Flattery is a kind of bad money, to which our vanity gives us currency.

Self-interest speaks all manner of tongues and plays all manner of parts, even that of disinterestedness.