We are very far from always knowing our own wishes.

We love everything on our own account; we even follow our own taste and inclination when we prefer our friends to ourselves; and yet it is this preference alone that constitutes true and perfect friendship.

The esteem of good men is the reward of our worth, but the reputation of the world in general is the gift of our fate.

L'absence diminue les mediocres passions, et augmente les grandes,comme le vent eteint les bougies, et allume le feu. Absence diminishes commonplace passions, and increases great ones, as wind extinguishes candles and kindles fire.

The man that thinks he loves his mistress for her own sake is mightily mistaken.

The intellect is always fooled by the heart.

We are more often treacherous through weakness than through calculation.