Whatever pretended causes we may blame our afflictions upon, it is often nothing but self-interest and vanity that produce them.

It's easier to know people in general than one person in particular

When fortune surprises us by giving us some great office without having gradually led us to expect it, or without having raised our hopes, it is well nigh impossible to occupy it well, and to appear worthy to fill it.

What makes lovers never tire of one another is that they talk always about themselves.

The first lover is kept a long while, when no offer is made of a second.

Men's happiness and misery depends altogether as much upon their own humor as it does upon fortune.

Neither love nor fire can subsist without perpetual motion; both cease to live so soon as they cease to hope, or to fear.