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

The desire which urges us to deserve praise strengthens our good qualities, and praise given to wit, valour, and beauty, tends to increase them.

In the human heart one generation of passions follows another; from the ashes of one springs the spark of the next.

We get so much in the habit of wearing disguises before others that we finally appear disguised before ourselves.

Affected simplicity is a subtle imposture.

We seldom find any person of good sense, except those who share our opinions.

The height of ability in the least able consists in knowing how to submit to the good leadership of others.