In the human heart one generation of passions follows another; from the ashes of one springs the spark of the next.

If it were not for poetry, few men would ever fall in love.

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.

The man that thinks he loves his mistress for her own sake is mightily mistaken.

That which occasions so many mistakes in the computations of men, when they expect return for favors, is that the giver's pride and the receiver's cannot agree upon the value of the kindness done.

There is great skill in knowing how to conceal one's skill.

True bravery means doing alone that which one could do if all the world were by.