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

The cunningest dissimulation is when a man pretends to be caught in the traps others set for him; and a man is never so easily over-reached as when he is contriving to over-reach others.

We acknowledge that we should not talk of our wives; but we seem not to know that we should talk still less of ourselves.

We are never so happy, nor so unhappy, as we suppose ourselves to be.

When love becomes labored we welcome an act of infidelity towards ourselves to free us from fidelity.

It is the habit of mediocre minds to condemn all that is beyond their grasp.

Great men should not have great faults.