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.

The more we love, the nearer we are to hate.

Philosophy finds it an easy matter to vanquish past and future evils, but the present are commonly too hard for it.

Virtue would go far if vanity did not keep it company.

Jealousy springs more from love of self than from love of another.

If it were not for poetry, few men would ever fall in love.

Minds of moderate caliber ordinarily condemn everthing which is beyond their range.