“We all have enough strength to endure the misfortunes of others.”

The one thing people are the most liberal with, is their advice.

He who lives without folly isn’t so wise as he thinks.

Heat of blood makes young people change their inclinations often, and habit makes old ones keep to theirs a great while.

There are few virtuous women who are not bored with their trade.

True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen.

Hope, deceiving as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route.

What makes the pain we feel from shame and jealousy so cutting is that vanity can give us no assistance in bearing them.

It is almost always a fault of one who loves not to realize when he ceases to be loved.

Everyone complains of his memory, and nobody complains of his judgment.

It is easier to know men in general, than men in particular.

We seldom find people ungrateful so long as it is thought we can serve them.

No man is clever enough to know all the evil he does.

Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.

The principal point of cleverness is to know how to value things just as they deserve.

We should often feel ashamed of our best actions if the world could see all the motives which produced them.

Some people displease with merit, and others’ very faults and defects are pleasing.

Be hard on yourself, easy on others.

On the other hand, to eradicate illiteracy requires that we elect a fair and efficient political regime.

Those who divorce aren’t necessarily the most unhappy, just those neatly able to believe their misery is caused by one other person.

Literature deserves its prestige for one reason above all others – because it’s a tool to help us live and die with a little bit more wisdom, goodness, and sanity.

We should read other people’s books in order to learn what we feel; it is our own thoughts we should be developing, even if it is another writer’s thought that help us to do so.

At a certain age you’re always uncertain how other people will take you.

I’m always on a red carpet . . . the other day I thought, this ain’t bad. You can meet people on it.

If you limit yourself to sexual pleasure it’s narcissistic. You don’t connect with the other, you take what pleasure you want from them.