Of all our faults, the one we avow most easily is idleness; we persuade ourselves that it is allied to all the peaceable virtues,and as for the others, that it does not destroy them utterly, but only suspends the exercise of their functions.

Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.

Unfaithfulness ought to extinguish love, and we should not be jealous when there is reason to be. Only those who give no grounds for jealousy are worthy of it.

When great men permit themselves to be cast down by the continuance of misfortune, they show us that they were only sustained by ambition, and not by their mind; so that PLUS a great vanity, heroes are made like other men.

Those who are incapable of committing great crimes do not readily suspect them in others.

The name and pretense of virtue is as serviceable to self-interest as are real vices.

As we grow older we grow both more foolish and wiser at the same time.