Some weak people are so sensible of their weakness as to be able to make a good use of it.

Men are not only prone to forget benefits; they even hate those who have obliged them, and cease to hate those who have injured them. The necessity of revenging an injury, or of recompensing a benefit seems a slavery to which they are unwilling to submit.

We often select envenomed praise which, by a reaction upon those we praise, shows faults we could not have shown by other means.

Men never desire anything very eagerly which they desire only by the dictates of reason.

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.

We should often blush at our noblest deeds if the world were to see all their underlying motives.

The prospect of being pleased tomorrow will never console me for the boredom of today.