In great affairs we ought to apply ourselves less to creating chances than to profiting from those that offer.

There are some faults which, when well managed, make a greater figure than virtue itself.

The pleasure of love is in loving; we are happier in the passion we feel than in what we inspire.

Most men, like plants, possess hidden qualities which chance discovers.

The evil that we do does not attract to us so much persecution and hatred as our good qualities.

Women can more easily conquer their passion than their coquetterie.

The breeding we give young people is ordinarily but an additional self-love, by which we make them have a better opinion of themselves.