The virtues and vices are all put in motion by interest.

True bravery means doing alone that which one could do if all the world were by.

What often prevents our abandoning ourselves to a single vice is, our having more than one.

All women seem by nature to be coquettes.

Moderation is the feebleness and sloth of the soul, whereas ambition is the warmth and activity of it.

The art of putting into play mediocre qualities often begets more reputation than is achieved by true merit.

What we take for virtue is often nothing but an assemblage of different actions, and of different interests, that fortune or our industry knows how to arrange.