Old men are fond of giving good advice to console themselves for their inability to give bad examples.
There is no better proof of a man's being truly good than his desiring to be constantly under the observation of good men.
Nothing is so contagious as example; and we never do any great good or evil which does not produce its like.
Jealousy contains more of self-love than of love.
Only the contemptible fear contempt.
Many men are contemptuous of riches; few can give them away.
Fortune converts everything to the advantage of her favorites.
Timidity is a fault for which it is dangerous to reprove persons whom we wish to correct of it.
There are crimes which become innocent and even glorious through their splendor, number and excess.
Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them.
The force we use on ourselves, to prevent ourselves from loving, is often more cruel than the severest treatment at the hands of one loved.
Those that have had great passions esteem themselves for the rest of their lives fortunate and unfortunate in being cured of them.
There are various sorts of curiosity; one is from interest, which makes us desire to know that which may be useful to us; and the other, from pride which comes from the wish to know what others are ignorant of.
Flattery is a kind of bad money, to which our vanity gives us currency.
Every one speaks well of his own heart, but no one dares speak well of his own mind.
We are so used to dissembling with others that in time we come to deceive and dissemble with ourselves.
The surest way to be deceived is to consider oneself cleverer than others.
Some counterfeits reproduce so very well the truth that it would be a flaw of judgment not to be deceived by them.
Decency is the least of all laws, but yet it is the law which is most strictly observed.
The defects of the mind, like those of the face, grow worse with age.
