“In friendship as well as love, ignorance very often contributes more to our happiness than knowledge.”

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.

We only confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no big ones.

Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy they are, who already possess it.

Nothing is so contagious as example; and we never do any great good or evil which does not produce its like.

We only acknowledge small faults in order to make it appear that we are free from great ones.

Perfect valour consists in doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone.

Virtue would go far if vanity did not keep it company.

We seldom find any person of good sense, except those who share our opinions.

How can we expect another to keep our secret if we have been unable to keep it ourselves?