The most important things must be said simply, for they are spoiled by bombast; whereas trivial things must be described grandly, for they are supported only by aptness of expression, tone and manner.

The court is like a palace of marble; it's composed of people very hard and very polished.

Incivility is not a Vice of the Soul, but the effect of several Vices; of Vanity, Ignorance of Duty, Laziness, Stupidity, Distraction, Contempt of others, and Jealousy.

All the world says of a coxcomb that he is a coxcomb; but no one dares to say so to his face, and he dies without knowing it.

Grief at the absence of a loved one is happiness compared to life with a person one hates.

Misers are neither relations, nor friends, nor citizens, nor Christians, nor perhaps even human beings.

We wish to constitute all the happiness, or, if that cannot be, the misery of the one we love.