Most of our faults are more pardonable than the means we use to conceal them.

There are but very few men clever enough to know all the mischief they do.

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

What makes us so often discontented with those who transact business for us is that they almost always abandon the interest of their friends for the interest of the business, because they wish to have the honor of succeeding in that which they have undertaken.

We all have enough strength to endure the misfortunes of others.

It is not always from valor or from chastity that men are brave, and women chaste.

Friendship is only a reciprocal conciliation of interests, and an exchange of good offices; it is a species of commerce out of which self-love always expects to gain something.