“Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking on.”

Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?

We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them.

It is often laziness and timidity that keep us within our duty while virtue gets all the credit.

If we resist our passions, it is more due to their weakness than our strength.

A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire.

There are a great many men valued in society who have nothing to recommend them but serviceable vices.

The defects of the mind, like those of the face, grow worse with age.

When we are in love we often doubt that which we most believe.

If we judge love by most of its effects, it resembles rather hatred than affection.

Old men are fond of giving good advice to console themselves for their inability to give bad examples.

Great souls are not those who have fewer passions and more virtues than others, but only those who have greater designs.

Too great haste to repay an obligation is a kind of ingratitude.

The only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us.

All the passions make us commit faults; love makes us commit the most ridiculous ones.

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

We always love those who admire us, but we do not always love those whom we admire.