Nothing hinders a thing from being natural so much as the straining ourselves to make it seem so.

Women's virtue is frequently nothing but a regard to their own quiet and a tenderness for their reputation.

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.

There are some faults which, when well managed, make a greater figure than virtue itself.

It is as easy to unknowingly deceive yourself as it is to deceive others.

Nothing is more contagious than example, and no man does any exceeding good or exceeding ill but it spawns new deeds of the same kind. The good we imitate through emulation, the ill through the malignity of our nature, which shame keeps locked up, but example sets free.

We are almost always wearied in the company of persons with whom we are not permitted to be weary.