There are some good marriages, but practically no delightful ones.

We love everything on our own account; we even follow our own taste and inclination when we prefer our friends to ourselves; and yet it is this preference alone that constitutes true and perfect friendship.

To understand matters rightly we should understand their details; and as that knowledge is almost infinite, our knowledge is always superficial and imperfect.

The force we use on ourselves, to prevent ourselves from loving, is often more cruel than the severest treatment at the hands of one loved.

All the passions make us commit faults; love makes us commit the most ridiculous ones.

Selfishness is the grand moving principle of nine-tenths of our actions.

As love increases, prudence diminishes.