Sincerity is a certain openness of heart. It is to be found in very few, and what we commonly look upon to be so is only a cunningsort of dissimulation, to insinuate ourselves into the confidence of others.

We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them.

Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding.

If we resist our passions, it is more due to their weakness than our strength.

What makes us so often discontented with those who transact business for us is that they almost always abandon the interest of their friends for the interest of the business, because they wish to have the honor of succeeding in that which they have undertaken.

The most clever and polite are content with only seeming attentive while we perceive in their mind and eyes that at the very time they are wandering from what is said and desire to return to what they want to say.

Jealousy is the greatest of all evils, and the one that arouses the least pity in the person who causes it.