Some beautiful things are more dazzling when they are still imperfect than when they have been too perfectly crafted.

We often in our misfortunes take that for constancy and patience which is only dejection of mind; we suffer without daring to holdup our heads, just as cowards let themselves be knocked on the head because they have not courage to strike back.

The most clever and polite are content with only seeming attentive while we perceive in their mind and eyes that at the very time they are wandering from what is said and desire to return to what they want to say.

There are people who would never have been in love, had they never heard love spoken of.

We do not like to praise, and seldom praise anyone without self-interest.

Self-love increases or diminishes for us the good qualities of our friends, in proportion to the satisfaction we feel with them; and we judge of their merit by the manner in which they act towards us.

Sometimes there are accidents in our lives the skillful extrication from which demands a little folly.