The clemency of Princes is often but policy to win the affections of the people. |
The coldness of women is a balance and burden they add to their beauty. |
The common foible of women who have been handsome is to forget that they are no longer so. |
The confidence which we have in ourselves engenders the greatest part of that which we have in others |
The constancy of the wise is only the talent of concealing the agitation of their hearts. |
The contempt of riches in philosophers was only a hidden desire to avenge their merit upon the injustice of fortune, by despising the very goods of which fortune had deprived them; it was a secret to guard themselves against the degradation of poverty, it |
The daily employment of cunning marks a little mind, it generally happens that those who resort to it in one respect to protect themselves lay themselves open to attack in another. |
The defects of the mind are like the wounds of the body. Whatever care we take to heal them the scars ever remain, and there is always danger of their reopening. |
The defects of the mind, like those of the face, grow worse as we grow old |
The desire of talking about ourselves, and of putting our faults in the light we wish them to be seen, forms a great part of our sincerity. |
The desire to be pitied or to be admired often forms the greater part of our confidence. |
The desire to seem clever often keeps us from being so. |
The duration of our passions is no more dependant upon us than the duration of our life. [Then what becomes of free will?—Aimé; Martin] |
The evil that we do does not attract to us so much persecution and hatred as our good qualities. |
The evils we do to others give us less pain than those we do to ourselves. |