We seldom praise anyone in good earnest, except such as admire us.

Politeness is a desire to be treated politely, and to be esteemed polite oneself.

It is not enough that we should succeed, but our friends must fail as well.

Whatever pretended causes we may blame our afflictions upon, it is often nothing but self-interest and vanity that produce them.

The greatest part of our faults are more excusable than the methods that are commonly taken to conceal them.

Absence abates a moderate passion and intensifies a great one - as the wind blows out a candle but fans fire into flame.

Self-love, as it happens to be well or ill conducted, constitutes virtue and vice.