Nothing is rarer than real goodness.

The soul's maladies have their relapses like the body's. What we take for a cure is often just a momentary rally or a new form of the disease.

In the misfortunes of our best friends we always find something not altogether displeasing to us.

When our vices leave us, we like to imagine it is we who are leaving them.

One kind of happiness is to know exactly at what point to be miserable.

However glorious an action in itself, it ought not to pass for great if it be not the effect of wisdom and intention.

We endeavor to make a virtue of the faults we are unwilling to correct.