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.

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.

Gracefulness is to the body what understanding is to the mind.

We get so much in the habit of wearing disguises before others that we finally appear disguised before ourselves.

Not all those who know their minds know their hearts as well.

However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship.

The mind cannot long play the heart’s role.

“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.”