The desire of talking of ourselves, and showing those faults we do not mind having seen, makes up a good part of our sincerity.

Sometimes we lose friends for whose loss our regret is greater than our grief, and others for whom our grief is greater than our regret.

However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship.

There are few virtuous women who are not bored with their trade.

What we call generosity is for the most part only the vanity of giving; and we exercise it because we are more fond of that vanity than of the thing we give.

Hope and fear are inseparable. There is no hope without fear, nor any fear without hope.

When the philosophers despised riches, it was because they had a mind to vindicate their own merit, and take revenge upon the injustice of fortune by vilifying those enjoyments which she had not given them.