The applause we give those who are new to society often proceeds from a secret envying of those already established.

We do not like to praise, and seldom praise anyone without self-interest.

There are people who would never have been in love, had they never heard love spoken of.

Reconciliation with our enemies is simply a desire to better our condition, a weariness of war, or the fear of some unlucky thing from occurring.

Imagination could never invent the number of different contradictions that exist innately in each person's heart.

Men are not only prone to forget benefits; they even hate those who have obliged them, and cease to hate those who have injured them. The necessity of revenging an injury, or of recompensing a benefit seems a slavery to which they are unwilling to submit.

Great names abase, instead of elevating, those who do not know how to bear them.