The heart of man ever finds a constant succession of passions, so that the destroying and pulling down of one proves generally tobe nothing else but the production and the setting up of another.

A man's worth has its season, like fruit.

The esteem of good men is the reward of our worth, but the reputation of the world in general is the gift of our fate.

We often in our misfortunes take that for constancy and patience which is only dejection of mind; we suffer without daring to holdup our heads, just as cowards let themselves be knocked on the head because they have not courage to strike back.

There are few good women who do not tire of their role.

What men call friendship is no more than a partnership, a mutual care of interests, an exchange of favors - in a word, it is a sort of traffic, in which self-love ever proposes to be the gainer.

The most effectual way to be deceived is to believe oneself more cunning than one's neighbors.