The person giving the advice returns the confidence placed in him with a disinterested eagerness... and he is usually guided only by his own interest or reputation.

Nothing is rarer than true good nature; they who are reputed to have it are generally only pliant or weak.

Gravity is a mysterious carriage of the body invented to cover the defects of the mind.

In infants, levity is a prettiness; in men a shameful defect; but in old age, a monstrous folly.

The less you trust others, the less you will be deceived.

The greatest miracle of love is the cure of coquetry.

Too great cleverness is but deceptive delicacy, true delicacy is the most substantial cleverness.