It is most difficult to speak when we are ashamed of being silent.

Those who are overreached by our cunning are far from appearing to us as ridiculous as we appear to ourselves when the cunning of others has overreached us.

People are often vain of their passions, even of the worst, but envy is a passion so timid and shame-faced that no one ever dare avow her.

Simplicity is a delicate imposition.

Our enemies come nearer the truth in the opinions they form of us than we do in our opinion of ourselves.

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

Death, like the sun, cannot be looked at steadily.