Fortune never appears so blind as to those to whom she does no good.

Humility is often a false front we employ to gain power over others.

Self-love, as it happens to be well or ill conducted, constitutes virtue and vice.

It is a common fault never to be satisfied with our fortune, nor dissatisfied with our understanding.

Jealousy is not love, but self-love.

Almost everyone takes pleasure in repaying trifling obligations, very many feel gratitude for those that are moderate; but there is scarcely anyone who is not ungrateful for those that are weighty.

Even the most disinterested love is, after all, but a kind of bargain, in which self-love always proposes to be the gainer one wayor another.