We are eager to believe that others are flawed because we are eager to believe in what we wish for.

Jealousy is bred in doubts. When those doubts change into certainties, then the passion either ceases or turns absolute madness.

No fools are so difficult to manage as those with some brains.

If it were not for the company of fools, a witty man would often be greatly at a loss.

L'absence diminue les mediocres passions, et augmente les grandes,comme le vent eteint les bougies, et allume le feu. Absence diminishes commonplace passions, and increases great ones, as wind extinguishes candles and kindles fire.

We only acknowledge small faults in order to make it appear that we are free from great ones.

Some good qualities are like the senses: Those who are entirely deprived of them can have no notion of them.