If it were not for poetry, few men would ever fall in love.

Fortune cures us of many faults that reason could not.

The best way to rise in society is to use all possible means of persuading people that one has already risen in society.

Some reproaches praise; some praises reproach.

We label judges with having the meanest motives, and yet we desire that our reputation and fame should depend upon the judgment of men, who are all, either from their jealousy or preoccupation or want of intelligence, opposed to us - and yet despite their bias, just for the sake of making these men decide in our favor, we peril in so many ways both our peace and our life.

In friendship, as in love, we are often more happy from the things we are ignorant of than from those we are acquainted with.

Simplicity is a delicate imposition.