“Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.”

Our actions seem to have their lucky and unlucky stars, to which a great part of that blame and that commendation is due which is given to the actions themselves.

We promise in proportion to our hopes, and we deliver in proportion to our fears.

Flattery is a kind of bad money, to which our vanity gives us currency.

One can find women who have never had one love affair, but it is rare indeed to find any who have had only one.

As one grows older, one becomes wiser and more foolish.

There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not.

On neither the sun, nor death, can a man look fixedly.

If we are to judge of love by its consequences, it more nearly resembles hatred than friendship.

There are heroes in evil as well as in good.

The surest way to be deceived is to consider oneself cleverer than others.

Innocence does not find near so much protection as guilt.

We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves.

One is never fortunate or as unfortunate as one imagines.

Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.

That good disposition which boasts of being most tender is often stifled by the least urging of self-interest.

Old people love to give good advice; it compensates them for their inability to set a bad example.