To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection we are able to attain in the art of conversation.

We are easily comforted for the misfortunes of our friends, when those misfortunes give us an occasion of expressing our affection and solicitude.

It's easier to know people in general than one person in particular

Even women are perfect at the outset.

There are few occasions when we should make a bad bargain by giving up the good on condition that no ill was said of us.

To safeguard one's health at the cost of too strict a diet is a tiresome illness, indeed.

Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers.