Esteem must be founded on some sort of preference. Bestow it on everybody and it ceases to have any meaning at all.
People of quality know everything without ever having learned anything.
Betrayed and wronged in everything, I’ll flee this bitter world where vice is king, And seek some spot unpeopled and apart Where I’ll be free to have an honest heart. - Molière, The Misanthrope
The scandal of the world is what makes the offence; it is not sinful to sin in silence.
Those whose conduct gives room for talk are always the first to attack their neighbors.
Cover that bosom that I must not see: souls are wounded by such things.