No man deserves to be praised for his goodness, who has it not in his power to be wicked. Goodness without that power is generally nothing more than sloth, or an impotence of will.

A man may be sharper than another, but not than all others.

There are crimes which become innocent and even glorious through their splendor, number and excess.

Friendship is only a reciprocal conciliation of interests, and an exchange of good offices; it is a species of commerce out of which self-love always expects to gain something.

The temperament that produces a talent for little things is the opposite of that required for great ones.

There are persons whose only merit consists in saying and doing stupid things at the right time, and who ruin all if they change their manners.

Happiness is in the taste, and not in the things themselves; we are happy from possessing what we like, not from possessing what others like.