To establish ourselves in the world, we have to do all we can to appear established. To succeed in the world, we do everything we can to appear successful.

We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves.

We acknowledge that we should not talk of our wives; but we seem not to know that we should talk still less of ourselves.

The best way to rise in society is to use all possible means of persuading people that one has already risen in society.

Whatever discoveries we may have made in the regions of self-love, there still remain many unknown lands.

No man deserves to be praised for his goodness, who has it not in his power to be wicked. Goodness without that power is generally nothing more than sloth, or an impotence of will.

The desire which urges us to deserve praise strengthens our good qualities, and praise given to wit, valour, and beauty, tends to increase them.