We say little, when vanity does not make us speak.

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.

The happiness and misery of men depend no less on temper than fortune.

Praise is flattery, artful, hidden, delicate, which gratifies differently him who praises and him who is praised. The one takes it as the reward of merit, the other bestows it to show his impartiality and knowledge.

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

True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen.

Jealousy is the greatest of all evils, and the one that arouses the least pity in the person who causes it.