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

No fools are so difficult to manage as those with some brains.

We often pride ourselves on even the most criminal passions, but envy is a timid and shamefaced passion we never dare to acknowledge.

Our enemies come nearer the truth in the opinions they form of us than we do in our opinion of ourselves.

The extreme pleasure we take in speaking of ourselves should make us apprehensive that it gives hardly any to those who listen to us.

We seldom find people ungrateful so long as it is thought we can serve them.

Confidence always pleases those who receive it. It is a tribute we pay to their merit, a deposit we commit to their trust, a pledge that gives them a claim upon us, a kind of dependence to which we voluntarily submit.