"What keeps us from abandoning ourselves entirely to one vice, often, is the fact that we have several"
"What is called generosity is usually only the vanity of giving; we enjoy the vanity more than the thing given"
"Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended"
"We would rather speak ill of ourselves than not talk about ourselves at all"
"We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them"
"We should often feel ashamed of our best actions if the world could see all the motives which produced them"
"We should often blush for our very best actions, if the world did but see all the motives upon which they were done"
"The more one loves a mistress, the more one is ready to hate her"
"The moderation of people in prosperity is the effect of a smooth and composed temper, owing to the calm of their good fortune"
"The mind is always the patsy of the heart"
"The mind cannot long play the heart's role"
"In love we often doubt what we most believe"
"In friendship as well as love, ignorance very often contributes more to our happiness than knowledge"
"In all professions each affects a look and an exterior to appear what he wishes the world to believe that he is. Thus we may say that the whole world is made up of appearances"
"If we resist our passions, it is more due to their weakness than our strength"
"If we judge love by most of its effects, it resembles rather hatred than affection"
"If we have not peace within ourselves, it is in vain to seek it from outward sources"
"If we had no faults of our own, we should not take so much pleasure in noticing those in others"
"If we did not flatter ourselves, the flattery of others could never harm us"
"If we are to judge of love by its consequences, it more nearly resembles hatred than friendship"
"If there be a love pure and free from the admixture of our other passions, it is that which lies hidden in the bottom of our heart, and which we know not ourselves"
"No man is clever enough to know all the evil he does"
"No man deserves to be praised for his goodness, who has it not in his power to be wicked. Goodness without that power is generally nothing more than sloth, or an impotence of will"
"Never give anyone the advice to buy or sell shares, because the most benevolent price of advice can turn out badly"
"It takes nearly as much ability to know how to profit by good advice as to know how to act for one's self"
"It is with true love as it is with ghosts; everyone talks about it, but few have seen it"
"It is with an old love as it is with old age a man lives to all the miseries, but is dead to all the pleasures"
"It is often laziness and timidity that keep us within our duty while virtue gets all the credit"
"It is not in the power of even the most crafty dissimulation to conceal love long, where it really is, nor to counterfeit it long where it is not"
"It is not enough to have great qualities; We should also have the management of them"
"Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example"
"Funeral pomp is more for the vanity of the living than for the honor of the dead"
"Fortune converts everything to the advantage of her favorites"
"Flattery is a kind of bad money, to which our vanity gives us currency"
"Few things are impracticable in themselves; and it is for want of application, rather than of means, that men fail to succeed"
"It is a great act of cleverness to be able to conceal one's being clever"
"Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them"
"He is not to pass for a man of reason who stumbles upon reason by chance but he who knows it and can judge it and has a true taste for it"
"Great souls are not those who have fewer passions and more virtues than others, but only those who have greater designs"
"The intellect is always fooled by the heart"
"The heart is forever making the head its fool"
"The happiness and misery of men depend no less on temper than fortune"
"That good disposition which boasts of being most tender is often stifled by the least urging of self-interest"
"Taste may change, but inclination never"
"Some people displease with merit, and others' very faults and defects are pleasing"
"Some counterfeits reproduce so very well the truth that it would be a flaw of judgment not to be deceived by them"
"Some accidents there are in life that a little folly is necessary to help us out of"
"Silence is the safest course for any man to adopt who distrust himself"
"Virtue would go far if vanity did not keep it company"
