The passions are the only orators that always persuade: they are, as it were, a natural art, the rules of which are infallible; and the simplest man with passion is more persuasive than the most eloquent without it.

We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves.

No one thinks fortune so blind as those she has been least kind to.

One may outwit another, but not all the others.

Often we are firm from weakness, and audacious from timidity.

Idiots and lunatics see only their own wit.

When the soul is ruffled by the remains of one passion, it is more disposed to entertain a new one than when it is entirely curedand at rest from all.