Humility is often only feigned submission which people use to render others submissive. It is a subterfuge of pride which lowers itself in order to rise.

Flattery is a base coin which is current only through our vanity.

If one judges love by the majority of its effects, it is more like hatred than like friendship.

It is most difficult to speak when we are ashamed of being silent.

A man for whom accident discovers sense, is not a rational being. A man only is so who understands, who distinguishes, who tests it.

However great the advantages given us by nature, it is not she alone, but fortune with her, which makes heroes.

When we exaggerate our friends' tenderness towards us, it is often less from gratitude than from a desire to exhibit our own virtue.