“There are people who in spite of their merit disgust us, and others who please us in spite of their faults.”
“True bravery is shown by performing without witness what one might be capable of doing before all the world.”
“What is called generosity is usually only the vanity of giving; we enjoy the vanity more than the thing given.”
“There are ways which lead to everything, and if we have sufficient will we should always have sufficient means.”
“One can find women who have never had one love affair, but it is rare indeed to find any who have had only one.”
“There is such a thing as a general revolution which changes the taste of men as it changes the fortunes of the world.”
“In the human heart new passions are forever being born; the overthrow of one almost always means the rise of another.”
“Great souls are not those who have fewer passions and more virtues than others, but only those who have greater designs.”
“We have more ability than will power, and it is often an excuse to ourselves that we imagine that things are impossible.”
“Although men flatter themselves with their great actions, they are not so often the result of a great design as of chance.”
“The shame that arises from praise which we do not deserve often makes us do things we should otherwise never have attempted.”
“Few things are impracticable in themselves; and it is for want of application, rather than of means, that men fail to succeed.”
“The height of ability consists in a thorough knowledge of the real value of things, and of the genius of the age in which we live.”
“Nothing is so contagious as an example. We never do great good or evil without bringing about more of the same on the part of others.”
“What seems to be generosity is often no more than disguised ambition, which overlooks a small interest in order to secure a great one.”
“As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so small wits seem to have the gift of speaking much and saying nothing.”
“The reason why so few people are agreeable in conversation is that each is thinking more about what he intends to say than others are saying.”
“He who imagines he can do without the world deceives himself much; but he who fancies the world cannot do without him is still more mistaken.”
“Our desires always disappoint us; for though we meet with something that gives us satisfaction, yet it never thoroughly answers our expectation.”
“It is only persons of firmness that can have real gentleness. Those who appear gentle are, in general, only a weak character, which easily changes into asperity.”
“Why is our memory good enough to recall to the last detail things that have happened to us, yet not good enough to recall how often we have told them to the same person.”
“In all professions each affects a look and an exterior to appear what he wishes the world to believe that he is. Thus we may say that the whole world is made up of appearances.”
“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.”
“There is a kind of elevation which does not depend on fortune; it is a certain air which distinguishes us, and seems to destine us for great things; it is a price which we imperceptibly set upon ourselves.”
“Hope is the last thing that dies in man; and though it be exceedingly deceitful, yet it is of this good use to us, that while we are traveling through life it conducts us in an easier and more pleasant way to our journey's end.”
“What men have called friendship is only a social arrangement, a mutual adjustment of interests, an interchange of services given and received; it is, in sum, simply a business from which those involved propose to derive a steady profit for their own self-love.”