Men are not only prone to forget benefits; they even hate those who have obliged them, and cease to hate those who have injured them. The necessity of revenging an injury, or of recompensing a benefit seems a slavery to which they are unwilling to submit.

The sure mark of one born with noble qualities is being born without envy.

Neither the sun nor death can be looked at steadily.

How can we expect another to keep our secret if we have been unable to keep it ourselves?

Nothing ought more to humiliate men who have merited great praise than the care they still take to boast of little things.

Gratitude, in most men, is only a strong and secret hope of greater favors.

We are never so easily deceived as when we imagine we are deceiving others.