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

The duration of our passions is no more dependent on ourselves than the duration of our lives.

Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?

One kind of flirtation is to boast we never flirt.

Our wisdom is no less at fortune's mercy than our wealth.

The passions are the only orators that always persuade: they are, as it were, a natural art, the rules of which are infallible; and the simplest man with passion is more persuasive than the most eloquent without it.

Nothing is so contagious as example; and we never do any great good or evil which does not produce its like.