Confidence always pleases those who receive it. It is a tribute we pay to their merit, a deposit we commit to their trust, a pledge that gives them a claim upon us, a kind of dependence to which we voluntarily submit.

It is oftener by the estimation of our own feelings that we exaggerate the good qualities of others than by their merit, and when we praise them we wish to attract their praise.

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

Nature makes merit, and fortune puts it to work.

We endeavor to make a virtue of the faults we are unwilling to correct.

In misfortune we often mistake dejection for constancy; we bear it without daring to look on it; like cowards, who suffer themselves to be murdered without resistance.

It is a species of coquetry to make a parade of never practising it.