All the passions make us commit faults; love makes us commit the most ridiculous ones.

We are never so ridiculous through what we are as through what we pretend to be.

The moderation of people in prosperity is the effect of a smooth and composed temper, owing to the calm of their good fortune.

Prudence and love are inconsistent; in proportion as the last increases, the other decreases.

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

The health of the soul is as precarious as that of the body; for when we seem secure from passions, we are no less in danger of their infection than we are of falling ill when we appear to be well.

The praise we give to new comers into the world arises from the envy we bear to those who are established.