What seems to be generosity is often no more than disguised ambition, which overlooks a small interest in order to secure a great one.

A man for whom accident discovers sense, is not a rational being. A man only is so who understands, who distinguishes, who tests it.

The man who leaves a woman best pleased with herself is the one whom she will soonest wish to see.

Our good qualities expose us more to hatred and persecution than all the ill we do.

It is a mighty error to suppose that none but violent and strong passions, such as love and ambition, are able to vanquish the rest. Even idleness, as feeble and languishing as it is, sometimes reigns over them; it usurps the throne and sits paramount over all the designs and actions of our lives, and imperceptibly wastes and destroys all our passions and all our virtues.

Customary use of artifice is the sign of a small mind, and it almost always happens that he who uses it to cover one spot uncovers himself in another.

Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy they are, who already possess it.