Imagination could never invent the number of different contradictions that exist innately in each person's heart.

The passions are the only orators which always persuade.

We torment ourselves rather to make it appear that we are happy than to become so.

Men are inconsolable concerning the treachery of their friends or the deceptions of their enemies; and yet they are often very highly satisfied to be both deceived and betrayed by their own selves.

It is harder to hide the feelings we have than to feign the ones we do not have.

There are heroes in evil as well as in good.

It is more often from pride than from defective understanding that people oppose established opinions: they find the best places taken in the good party and are reluctant to accept inferior ones.