Innocence does not find near so much protection as guilt.

The man that thinks he loves his mistress for her own sake is mightily mistaken.

Perfect behavior is born of complete indifference.

Those who are condemned to death affect sometimes a constancy and contempt for death which is only the fear of facing it; so that one may say that this constancy and contempt are to their mind what the bandage is to their eyes.

We cannot possibly imagine the variety of contradictions in every heart.

What is called liberality is often merely the vanity of giving.

To establish ourselves in the world, we have to do all we can to appear established. To succeed in the world, we do everything we can to appear successful.