Humility is the sure evidence of Christian virtues. Without it, we retain all our faults still, and they are only covered over with pride, which hides them from other men's observation, and sometimes from our own too.
Francois de La RochefoucauldIt is more difficult for a man to be faithful to his mistress when he is favored than when he is ill treated by her.
Francois de La RochefoucauldClemency, which we make a virtue of, proceeds sometimes from vanity, sometimes from indolence, often from fear, and almost always from a mixture of all three.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld