A wise man is not governed by others, nor does he try to govern them; he prefers that reason alone prevail.

Foolish jokers are thick on the ground, and it rains insects of that sort everywhere. A good joker is a rarity; even a man who is such by nature finds it hard to sustain the part for long; it seldom happens that the man who makes us laugh wins our esteem.

A coquette is one that is never to be persuaded out of the passion she has to please, nor out of a good opinion of her own beauty: time and years she regards as things that only wrinkle and decay other women, forgetting that age is written in the face, and that the same dress which became her when she was young now only makes her look older.

How much wit, good-nature, indulgences, how many good offices and civilities, are required among friends to accomplish in some years what a lovely face or a fine hand does in a minute!

The spendthrift robs his heirs the miser robs himself.

We hope to grow old and we dread old age; that is to say, we love life and we flee from death.

There is not in the world so toilsome a trade as the pursuit of fame; life concludes before you have so much as sketched your work.