The whimsicalness of our own humor is a thousand times more fickle and unaccountable than what we blame so much in fortune.

We never desire strongly, what we desire rationally.

It is not in the power of even the most crafty dissimulation to conceal love long, where it really is, nor to counterfeit it long where it is not.

We always get bored with those whom we bore.

The generality of virtuous women are like hidden treasures, they are safe only because nobody has sought after them.

Our concern for the loss of our friends is not always from a sense of their worth, but rather of our own need of them and that we have lost some who had a good opinion of us.

Love of glory, fear of shame, greed for fortune, the desire to make life agreeable and comfortable, and the wish to depreciate others - all of these are often the causes of the bravery that is spoken so highly of by men.