There are bad people who would be less dangerous if they were quite devoid of goodness.

Of all our faults, the one we avow most easily is idleness; we persuade ourselves that it is allied to all the peaceable virtues,and as for the others, that it does not destroy them utterly, but only suspends the exercise of their functions.

In their early passions women are in love with the lover, later they are in love with love.

That good disposition which boasts of being most tender is often stifled by the least urging of self-interest.

We exaggerate the glory of some men in order to detract from that of others.

If there be a love pure and free from the admixture of our other passions, it is that which lies hidden in the bottom of our heart, and which we know not ourselves.

Gratitude is like credit; it is the backbone of our relations; frequently we pay our debts not because equity demands that we should, but to facilitate future loans.