Cunning is none of the best nor worst qualities; it floats between virtue and vice; there is scarce any exigence where it may not, and perhaps ought not to be supplied by prudence.

Cheats easily believe others as bad as themselves; there is no deceiving them, nor do they long deceive.

Let us not complain against men because otheir rudeness, their ingratitude, their injustice, their arrogance, their love oself, their forgetfulness oothers. They are so made. Such is their nature.

It is through madness that we hate an enemy, and think of revenging ourselves; and it is through indolence that we are appeased, and do not revenge ourselves.

The great charm of conversation consists less in the display of one's own wit and intelligence than in the power to draw forth the resources of others.

Making a book is a craft, like making a clock; it needs more than native wit to be an author.

There are few wives so perfect as not to give their husbands at least once a day good reason to repent of ever having married, or at least of envying those who are unmarried.