Our merit gains us the esteem of the virtuous-our star that of the public.

Flattery is false money, which would not be current were it not for our vanity.

There are persons whose only merit consists in saying and doing stupid things at the right time, and who ruin all if they change their manners.

Self-love is the love of a man's own self, and of everything else for his own sake. It makes people idolaters to themselves, and tyrants to all the world besides.

Prudence and love are inconsistent; in proportion as the last increases, the other decreases.

Whatever good things people say of us, they tell us nothing new.

No man can love a second time the person whom he has once truly ceased to love.