There are people who, like new songs, are in vogue only for a time.

We should scarcely desire things ardently if we were perfectly acquainted with what we desire.

It is only persons of firmness that can have real gentleness. Those who appear gentle are, in general, only a weak character, which easily changes into asperity.

Absence abates a moderate passion and intensifies a great one - as the wind blows out a candle but fans fire into flame.

What we call generosity is for the most part only the vanity of giving; and we exercise it because we are more fond of that vanity than of the thing we give.

Chance corrects us of many faults that reason would not know how to correct.

When a man is in love, he doubts, very often, what he most firmly believes.