We do not praise others, ordinarily, but in order to be praised ourselves.

Selfishness is the grand moving principle of nine-tenths of our actions.

We get so much in the habit of wearing disguises before others that we finally appear disguised before ourselves.

We do not praise others, ordinarily, but in order to be praised ourselves.

Unfaithfulness ought to extinguish love, and we should not be jealous when there is reason to be. Only those who give no grounds for jealousy are worthy of it.

The secret of pleasing in conversation is not to explain too much everything; to say them half and leave a little for divination is a mark of the good opinion we have of others, and nothing flatters their self-love more.

Hypocrisy is an homage that vice renders to virtue.