No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.

Our virtues are often, in reality, no better than vices disguised.

We would rather speak ill of ourselves than not talk about ourselves at all.

We should scarcely desire things ardently if we were perfectly acquainted with what we desire.

There are follies as catching as contagious disorders.

The secret of pleasing in conversation is not to explain too much everything; to say them half and leave a little for divination is a mark of the good opinion we have of others, and nothing flatters their self-love more.

Instead of considering that the worst way to persuade or please others is to try thus strongly to please ourselves, and that to listen well and to answer well are some of the greatest charms we can have in conversation.