Absence cools moderate passions, and inflames violent ones; just as the wind blows out candles, but kindles fires.

The gratitude of most men is but a secret desire of receiving greater benefits.

There are very few things impossible in themselves; and we do not want means to conquer difficulties so much as application and resolution in the use of means.

We are not fond of praising, and never praise any one except from interested motives. Praise is a clever, concealed, and delicate flattery, which gratifies in different ways the giver and the receiver. The one takes it as a recompense of his merit, and the other bestows it to display his equity and discernment.

It is not in the power of even the most crafty dissimulation to conceal love long, where it really is, nor to counterfeit it long where it is not.

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

Nothing prevents one from appearing natural as the desire to appear natural.