Days, months, years fly away, and irrecoverably sink in the abyss of time.

As a man falls out of favour and his wealth declines, we discover for the first time the ridiculous aspects of his character, which were always there but which wealth and favour had concealed.

Let us not envy some men their accumulated riches; their burden would be too heavy for us; we could not sacrifice, as they do, health, quiet, honor and conscience, to obtain them: It is to pay so dear from them that the bargain is a loss.

The most delicate, the most sensible of all pleasures, consists in promoting the pleasure of others.

We seek our happiness outside ourselves, and in the opinion of men we know to be flatterers, insincere, unjust, full of envy, caprice and prejudice.

A prince wants only the pleasure of private life to complete his happiness.

To endeavor to forget anyone is a certain way of thinking of nothing else.