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

There are bad people who would be less dangerous if they were quite devoid of goodness.

Nothing hinders a thing from being natural so much as the straining ourselves to make it seem so.

Jealousy contains more of self-love than of love.

Nothing is impossible; there are ways that lead to everything, and if we had sufficient will we should always have sufficient means. It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible.

The happiness and misery of men depend no less on temper than fortune.

In sum, simply a business from which those involved propose to derive a steady profit for their own self-love.

We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it.

We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.

We are easily comforted for the misfortunes of our friends, when those misfortunes give us an occasion of expressing our affection and solicitude.

We say little, when vanity does not make us speak.

Perfect behavior is born of complete indifference.

Passion makes idiots of the cleverest men, and makes the biggest idiots clever.

To know how to hide one’s ability is great skill.

There are very few people who are not ashamed of having been in love when they no longer love each other.

Self-interest makes some people blind, and others sharp-sighted.

Ridicule dishonors a man more than dishonor does.

The criterion of truth is that it works even if nobody is prepared to acknowledge it.

A brave man acknowledges the strength of others.

The root of the evil is not the construction of new, more dreadful weapons. It is the spirit of conquest.

God’s grace does not come to people who morally outperform others, but to those who admit their failure to perform and who acknowledge their need for a Savior.

Those who best know human nature will acknowledge most fully what a strength light hearted nonsense give to a hard working man

I abominate a humble man, but yet I love to perceive that a man acknowledges the superiority of my sex, and youth and all that kind of thing. . .

There is very little distance between being a fool and being wise; they are extremely close. When we are really, truly fools, when we actually acknowledge our foolishness, then we are way ahead. We are not even in the process of becoming wise – we are already wise.

I have this thing about being acknowledged and accepted by institutions.