It is not enough that we should succeed, but our friends must fail as well.

There are no accidents so unlucky from which clever people are not able to reap some advantage, and none so lucky that the foolish are not able to turn them to their own disadvantage.

When fortune surprises us by giving us some great office without having gradually led us to expect it, or without having raised our hopes, it is well nigh impossible to occupy it well, and to appear worthy to fill it.

Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.

Jealousy is not so much the love of another as the love of ourselves.

Whatever distrust we may have of the sincerity of those who converse with us, we always believe they will tell us more truth than they do to others.

To think to be wise alone is a very great folly.