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

We own up to minor failings, but only so as to convince others that we have no major ones.

Magnanimity is sufficiently defined by its name, nevertheless one can say it is the good sense of pride, the most noble way of receiving praise.

Women can less easily surmount their coquetry than their passions.

The great interests of man: air and light, the joy of having a body, the voluptuousness of looking.

Were we not proud ourselves, we should not complain of the pride of others.

The health of the soul is as precarious as that of the body; for when we seem secure from passions, we are no less in danger of their infection than we are of falling ill when we appear to be well.