The constancy of the wise is only the art of keeping disquietude to one's self.

Of all our faults, the one we avow most easily is idleness; we persuade ourselves that it is allied to all the peaceable virtues,and as for the others, that it does not destroy them utterly, but only suspends the exercise of their functions.

A lofty mind always thinks nobly, it easily creates vivid, agreeable, and natural fancies, places them in their best light, clothes them with all appropriate adornments, studies others' tastes, and clears away from its own thoughts all that is useless and disagreeable.

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.

Love, like fire, cannot subsist without constant impulse; it ceases to live from the moment it ceases to hope or to fear.

It is sometimes necessary to play the fool to avoid being deceived by cunning men.

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