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

If we are incapable of finding peace in ourselves, it is pointless to search elsewhere.

The mark of extraordinary merit is to see those most envious of it constrained to praise.

Pride indemnifies itself and loses nothing even when it casts away vanity.

Opportunity makes us known to others, but more to ourselves.

We speak little if not egged on by vanity.

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.