Tastes in young people are changed by natural impetuosity, and in the aged are preserved by habit.

Love has its name borrowed by a great number of dealings and affairs that are attributed to it--in which it has no greater part than the Doge in what is done at Venice.

The desire of appearing clever often prevents our becoming so.

In great affairs we ought to apply ourselves less to creating chances than to profiting from those that offer.

The happiness and misery of men depend no less on temper than fortune.

When a man must force himself to be faithful in his love, this is hardly better than unfaithfulness.

Some beautiful things are more dazzling when they are still imperfect than when they have been too perfectly crafted.