“Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them.”

Though men are apt to flatter and exalt themselves with their great achievements, yet these are, in truth, very often owing not so much to design as chance.

We pardon to the extent that we love.

Those who are incapable of committing great crimes do not readily suspect them in others.

There are various sorts of curiosity; one is from interest, which makes us desire to know that which may be useful to us; and the other, from pride which comes from the wish to know what others are ignorant of.

It is not enough to have great qualities; We should also have the management of them.

A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.

If it were not for the company of fools, a witty man would often be greatly at a loss.

Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding.

Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?

We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them.

It is often laziness and timidity that keep us within our duty while virtue gets all the credit.

If we resist our passions, it is more due to their weakness than our strength.

A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire.

There are a great many men valued in society who have nothing to recommend them but serviceable vices.

The defects of the mind, like those of the face, grow worse with age.

When we are in love we often doubt that which we most believe.

First appearance deceives many.

It is only prudent never to place complete confidence in that by which we have even once been deceived.

In the end love means deceive.

Let whoever can do so deceive me, he will never bring it about that I am nothing, so long as I continue to think I am something.

Sometimes we make the wrong choice, somewhere we deceive ourselves in matters of relationships, creating illusions, we are driven by something real.

I have found that nothing so deceives your adversaries as telling them the truth.

A country that does not know how to read and write is easy to deceive.

Do not let the rapidity with which these thoughts can change deceive you into feeling that you think them all at once.