We endeavor to make a virtue of the faults we are unwilling to correct.

There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not.

We often in our misfortunes take that for constancy and patience which is only dejection of mind; we suffer without daring to holdup our heads, just as cowards let themselves be knocked on the head because they have not courage to strike back.

All the passions are nothing else than different degrees of heat and cold of the blood.

We often persuade ourselves to love people who are more powerful than we are, yet interest alone produces our friendship; we do not give our hearts away for the good we wish to do, but for that we expect to receive.

To praise princes for virtues they do not possess is to insult them without fear of consequences.

The only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us.