What men call friendship is no more than a partnership, a mutual care of interests, an exchange of favors - in a word, it is a sort of traffic, in which self-love ever proposes to be the gainer.

Great and glorious events which dazzle the beholder are represented by politicians as the outcome of grand designs whereas they are usually products of temperaments and passions.

To achieve greatness one should live as if they will never die.

The aversion to lying is often a hidden ambition to render our words credible and weighty, and to attach a religious aspect to our conversation.

When our hatred is violent, it sinks us even beneath those we hate.

There are some people who would never have fallen in love if they had not heard there was such a thing.

We have no patience with other people's vanity because it is offensive to our own.