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

What we take for virtue is often but an assemblage of various ambitions and activities that chance, or our own astuteness, have arranged in a certain manner; and it is not always out of courage or purity that men are brave, and women chaste.

If we did not have pride, we would not complain of it in others.

Men are not only prone to forget benefits; they even hate those who have obliged them, and cease to hate those who have injured them. The necessity of revenging an injury, or of recompensing a benefit seems a slavery to which they are unwilling to submit.

The reason why most women have so little sense of friendship is that this is but a cold and flat passion to those that have felt that of love.

The desire which urges us to deserve praise strengthens our good qualities, and praise given to wit, valour, and beauty, tends to increase them.

Old people are fond of giving good advice; it consoles them for no longer being capable of setting a bad example.