Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?

Whatever pretext we may give for our affections, often it is only interest and vanity which cause them.

We exaggerate the glory of some men in order to detract from that of others.

Customary use of artifice is the sign of a small mind, and it almost always happens that he who uses it to cover one spot uncovers himself in another.

There are few occasions when we should make a bad bargain by giving up the good on condition that no ill was said of us.

A person well satisfied with themselves is seldom satisfied with others, and others, rarely are with them.

Sincerity is a certain openness of heart. It is to be found in very few, and what we commonly look upon to be so is only a cunningsort of dissimulation, to insinuate ourselves into the confidence of others.