For the credit of virtue we must admit that the greatest misfortunes of men are those into which they fall through their crimes.

Absence cools moderate passions, and inflames violent ones; just as the wind blows out candles, but kindles fires.

Being a blockhead is sometimes the best security against being cheated by a man of wit.

Hatred is stronger than friendship.

Penetration has an air of divination; it pleases our vanity more than any other quality of the mind.

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.

Unfaithfulness ought to extinguish love, and we should not be jealous when there is reason to be. Only those who give no grounds for jealousy are worthy of it.