We should desire very few things passionately if we did but perfectly know the nature of the things we desire.

There is no better proof of a man's being truly good than his desiring to be constantly under the observation of good men.

All the passions make us commit faults; love makes us commit the most ridiculous ones.

The love of new acquaintance comes not so much from being weary of what we had before, or from any satisfaction there is in change, as from the distaste we feel in being too little admired by those that know us too well, and the hope of being more admired by those that know us less.

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

Envy is destroyed by true friendship, as coquetry by true love.

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.