Clemency, which we make a virtue of, proceeds sometimes from vanity, sometimes from indolence, often from fear, and almost always from a mixture of all three.

Great men's honor ought always to be measured by the methods they made use of in attaining it.

The art of putting into play mediocre qualities often begets more reputation than is achieved by true merit.

True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen.

When we seek reconciliation with our enemies, it is commonly out of a desire to better our own condition, a being harassed and tired out with a state of war, and a fear of some ill accident which we are willing to prevent.

A clever man should handle his interests so that each will fall in suitable order of their value.

Constancy in love is a perpetual inconstancy which fixes our hearts successively to all the qualities of the person loved--sometimes admiring one and sometimes another above all the rest--so that this constancy roves as far as it can, and is no better than inconstancy, confined within the compass of one person.