To establish oneself in the world, one does all one can to seem established there already.

All the passions make us commit faults; love makes us commit the most ridiculous ones.

We often shed tears that deceive ourselves after deceiving others.

We often select envenomed praise which, by a reaction upon those we praise, shows faults we could not have shown by other means.

Tricks and treachery are merely proofs of lack of skill.

The greatest part of our faults are more excusable than the methods that are commonly taken to conceal them.

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.