The height of cleverness is to be able to conceal it.

We are always bored by the very people by whom it is vital not to be bored.

Happiness is in the taste, and not in the things themselves; we are happy from possessing what we like, not from possessing what others like.

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

The height of ability consists in a thorough knowledge of the real value of things, and of the genius of the age in which we live.

The one thing people are the most liberal with, is their advice.

The secret of pleasing in conversation is not to explain too much everything; to say them half and leave a little for divination is a mark of the good opinion we have of others, and nothing flatters their self-love more.