There are certain people fated to be fools; they not only commit follies by choice, but are even constrained to do so by fortune.

It is easier to understand mankind in general than any individual man.

Absence cools moderate passions, and inflames violent ones; just as the wind blows out candles, but kindles fires.

There is a sort of love whose very excessiveness prevents the lover's being jealous.

It is easier for a man to be thought fit for an employment that he has not, than for one he stands already possessed of, and is exercising.

The praise we give to new comers into the world arises from the envy we bear to those who are established.

Perfect valour consists in doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone.