Men are often so foolish as to boast and value themselves upon their passions, even those that are most vicious. But envy is a passion so full of cowardice and shame that no one every ever had the confidence to own it.

Flattery is a kind of bad money, to which our vanity gives us currency.

Weakness is the only fault that is incorrigible.

One is never fortunate or as unfortunate as one imagines.

In the human heart new passions are forever being born; the overthrow of one almost always means the rise of another.

Most men expose themselves in battle enough to save their honor, few wish to do so more than sufficiently, or than is necessary to make the design for which they expose themselves succeed.

However much we may distrust men's sincerity, we always believe they speak to us more sincerely than to others.