Some people displease with merit, and others' very faults and defects are pleasing.
We promise in proportion to our hopes, and we deliver in proportion to our fears.
Great souls are not those who have fewer passions and more virtues than others, but only those who have greater designs.
We do not despise all those who have vices, but we do despise those that have no virtue.
Why can we remember the tiniest detail that has happened to us, and not remember how many times we have told it to the same person.
There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not.
We get so much in the habit of wearing disguises before others that we finally appear disguised before ourselves.
What seems to be generosity is often no more than disguised ambition, which overlooks a small interest in order to secure a great one.
Our virtues are often, in reality, no better than vices disguised.
Ridicule dishonors a man more than dishonor does.
Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding.
There is a kind of elevation which does not depend on fortune; it is a certain air which distinguishes us, and seems to destine us for great things; it is a price which we imperceptibly set upon ourselves.
When a man is in love, he doubts, very often, what he most firmly believes.
We seldom praise anyone in good earnest, except such as admire us.
The sure mark of one born with noble qualities is being born without envy.
Pride, which inspires us with so much envy, is sometimes of use toward the moderating of it too.
Politeness is a desire to be treated politely, and to be esteemed polite oneself.
Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy they are, who already possess it.
Nothing is impossible; there are ways that lead to everything, and if we had sufficient will we should always have sufficient means. It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible.
We pardon to the extent that we love.
