A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.

Folly pursues us at all periods of our lives. If someone seems wise it is only because his follies are proportionate to his age and fortune.

Only the contemptible fear contempt.

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.

The passions are the only orators which always persuade.

Love often leads on to ambition, but seldom does one return from ambition to love.

What often prevents our abandoning ourselves to a single vice is, our having more than one.