Virtue would not make such advances if there were not a little vanity to keep it company.

When our vices leave us, we like to imagine it is we who are leaving them.

When a man is in love, he doubts, very often, what he most firmly believes.

Folly pursues us at all periods of our lives. If someone seems wise it is only because his follies are proportionate to his age and fortune.

Those great and glorious actions that dazzle our eyes with their luster are represented by statesmen as the result of great wisdomand excellent design; whereas, in truth, they are commonly the effects of the humors and passions.

Instead of considering that the worst way to persuade or please others is to try thus strongly to please ourselves, and that to listen well and to answer well are some of the greatest charms we can have in conversation.

Neither the sun nor death can be looked at steadily.