Have friends, not for the sake of receiving, but of giving.
Our experience is composed rather of illusions lost than of wisdom acquired.
The chief cause of our misery is less the violence of our passions than the feebleness of our virtues.
We want our friend as a man of talent, less because he has talent than because he is our friend.
God often visits us, but most of the time we are not at home.
As long as we love, we lend to the beloved object qualities of mind and heart which we deprive him of when the day of misunderstanding arrives.