Men would not live in society long if they were not each others dupes.

The most subtle of our acts is to simulate blindness for snares that we know are set for us.

We do not like to praise, and seldom praise anyone without self-interest.

There are but very few men clever enough to know all the mischief they do.

It is not expedient or wise to examine our friends too closely; few persons are raised in our esteem by a close examination.

We pardon to the extent that we love.

What we take for virtue is often but an assemblage of various ambitions and activities that chance, or our own astuteness, have arranged in a certain manner; and it is not always out of courage or purity that men are brave, and women chaste.