L'absence diminue les mediocres passions, et augmente les grandes,comme le vent eteint les bougies, et allume le feu. Absence diminishes commonplace passions, and increases great ones, as wind extinguishes candles and kindles fire.

Sincerity is an openness of heart; we find it in very few people; what we usually see is only an artful dissimulation to win the confidence of others.

What is called generosity is usually only the vanity of giving; we enjoy the vanity more than the thing given.

Happiness does not consist in things themselves but in the relish we have of them; and a man has attained it when he enjoys what he loves and desires himself, and not what other people think lovely and desirable.

There is such a thing as a general revolution which changes the taste of men as it changes the fortunes of the world.

Bodily labor alleviates the pains of the mind and from this arises the happiness of the poor

The most subtle of our acts is to simulate blindness for snares that we know are set for us.