Customary use of artifice is the sign of a small mind, and it almost always happens that he who uses it to cover one spot uncovers himself in another.

To know how to hide one's ability is great skill.

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

He that would be a great man must learn to turn every accident to some advantage.

We do not like to praise, and seldom praise anyone without self-interest.

Our minds are lazier than our bodies.

In misfortune we often mistake dejection for constancy; we bear it without daring to look on it; like cowards, who suffer themselves to be murdered without resistance.