Old people love to give good advice; it compensates them for their inability to set a bad example. Votes: 20
When a man must force himself to be faithful in his love, this is hardly better than unfaithfulness. Votes: 13
We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves. Votes: 10
In the misfortunes of our best friends we always find something not altogether displeasing to us. Votes: 0
If we are to judge of love by its consequences, it more nearly resembles hatred than friendship. Votes: 0
The reason that lovers never weary each other is because they are always talking about themselves. Votes: 0
The accent of a man's native country remains in his mind and his heart, as it does in his speech. Votes: 0
If we had no faults of our own, we should not take so much pleasure in noticing those in others. Votes: 0
Men often pass from love to ambition, but they seldom come back again from ambition to love. Votes: 0
Nothing hinders a thing from being natural so much as the straining ourselves to make it seem so. Votes: 0
When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere. Votes: 0
The art of using moderate abilities to advantage often brings greater results than actual brilliance Votes: 0
Passion often renders the most clever man a fool, and sometimes renders the most foolish man clever. Votes: 0
Not all who discharge their debts of gratitude should flatter themselves that they are grateful. Votes: 0
Nothing is so contagious as example. Votes: 0
We frequently do good in order to enable us to do evil later with impunity exemption of punishment. Votes: 0
Truth has scarce done so much good in the world as the false appearances of it have done hurt. Votes: 0
Hope and fear are inseparable. Votes: 0
Esteem never makes ingrates. Votes: 0
We often pay our debts not because it is only fair that we should, but to make future loans easier. Votes: 0
Moderation in people who are contented comes from that calm that good fortune lends to their spirit. Votes: 0
Narrowness of mind is often the cause of obstinacy; we do not easily believe beyond what we see. Votes: 0
In infants, levity is a prettiness; in men a shameful defect; but in old age, a monstrous folly. Votes: 0
It is much easier to extinguish a first desire than to satisfy all of those that follow it. Votes: 0
We forgive so long as we love. Votes: 0
Weak people cannot be sincere. Votes: 0
If it requires great tact to speak to the purpose, it requires no less to know when to be silent. Votes: 0
There are crimes which become innocent and even glorious through their splendor, number and excess. Votes: 0
The only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us. Votes: 0
Timidity is a fault for which it is dangerous to reprove persons whom we wish to correct of it. Votes: 0
It is often laziness and timidity that keep us within our duty while virtue gets all the credit. Votes: 0
It is no tragedy to do ungrateful people favors, but it is unbearable to be indebted to a scoundrel. Votes: 0
The greatest part of intimate confidences proceed from a desire either to be pitied or admired. Votes: 0
Hope, deceiving as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route. Votes: 0
People's personalities, like buildings, have various facades, some pleasant to view, some not. Votes: 0
Only the contemptible fear contempt. Votes: 0
There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not. Votes: 0
We only acknowledge small faults in order to make it appear that we are free from great ones. Votes: 0
Pride, which inspires us with so much envy, is sometimes of use toward the moderating of it too. Votes: 0
Jealousy is not love, but self-love. Votes: 0
The most subtle of our acts is to simulate blindness for snares that we know are set for us. Votes: 0
We always like those who admire us. Votes: 0
Too great cleverness is but deceptive delicacy, true delicacy is the most substantial cleverness. Votes: 0
It is easier to appear worthy of a position one does not hold, than of the office which one fills. Votes: 0
A man is perhaps ungrateful, but often less chargeable with ingratitude than his benefactor is. Votes: 0
Those who give too much attention to trifling things become generally incapable of great ones. Votes: 0
There are two things which Man cannot look at directly without flinching: the sun and death. Votes: 0
The evil that we do does not attract to us so much persecution and hatred as our good qualities. Votes: 0
Few are sufficiently wise to prefer censure which is useful to praise which is treacherous. Votes: 0
Good and bad fortune are found severally to visit those who have the most of the one or the other. Votes: 0
The good or the bad fortune of men depends not less upon their own dispositions than upon fortune. Votes: 0
One honor won is a surety for more. Votes: 0
Prudence and love are inconsistent; in proportion as the last increases, the other decreases. Votes: 0
Simplicity is a delicate imposition. Votes: 0
What often prevents our abandoning ourselves to a single vice is, our having more than one. Votes: 0
Men's happiness and misery depends altogether as much upon their own humor as it does upon fortune. Votes: 0
As long as we love, we can forgive. Votes: 0
The passions of youth are not more dangerous to health than is the lukewarmness of old age. Votes: 0
The most effectual way to be deceived is to believe oneself more cunning than one's neighbors. Votes: 0
All men are equally proud. The only difference is that not all take the same methods of showing it. Votes: 0
The reason why lovers are never bored together is that they are always talking of themselves. Votes: 0
The judgments our enemies make about us come nearer to the truth than those we make about ourselves. Votes: 0
Great men's honor ought always to be measured by the methods they made use of in attaining it. Votes: 0
We often are consoled by our want of reason for misfortunes that reason could not have comforted. Votes: 0
One man may be more cunning than another, but no one can be more cunning than all the world. Votes: 0
A man is ridiculous less through the characteristics he has than through those he affects to have. Votes: 0
Passion often makes a fool of the cleverest man and often makes the most foolish men clever Votes: 0
In their early passions women are in love with the lover, later they are in love with love. Votes: 0
We are eager to believe that others are flawed because we are eager to believe in what we wish for. Votes: 0
We should not be upset that others hide the truth from us, when we hide it so often from ourselves. Votes: 0
We should often blush at our noblest deeds if the world were to see all their underlying motives. Votes: 0
The great interests of man: air and light, the joy of having a body, the voluptuousness of looking. Votes: 0
The confidence which we have in ourselves give birth to much of that, which we have in others. Votes: 0
If we had no faults, we would not derive so much pleasure from noting those of other people. Votes: 0
The measure of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it. Votes: 0
We pardon as long as we love. Votes: 0
To establish yourself in the world a person must do all they can to appear already established. Votes: 0
Bodily labor alleviates the pains of the mind and from this arises the happiness of the poor Votes: 0
We give nothing so freely as advice. Votes: 0
There may be talent without position, but there is no position without some kind of talent. Votes: 0
Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils, but present evils triumph over it. Votes: 0
We should gain more by letting the world see what we are than by trying to seem what we are not. Votes: 0
Fortune and humor govern the world. Votes: 0
A clever man should handle his interests so that each will fall in suitable order of their value. Votes: 0
The pleasure of love is in loving. Votes: 0
If one judges love by the majority of its effects, it is more like hatred than like friendship. Votes: 0
A woman is faithful to her first lover for a long time - unless she happens to take a second. Votes: 0
The constancy of sages is nothing but the art of locking up their agitation in their hearts. Votes: 0
No accidents are so unlucky [bad] but that the wise may draw some advantage [good] from them... Votes: 0
Nature has concealed at the bottom of our minds talents and abilities of which we are not aware. Votes: 0
Were we faultless, we would not derive such satisfaction from remarking the faults of others. Votes: 0
We should not judge a man's merits by his great qualities, but by the use he makes of them. Votes: 0
To praise princes for virtues they do not possess is to insult them without fear of consequences. Votes: 0
There are fine things that are more brilliant when they are unfinished than when finished too much. Votes: 0
Nothing is rarer than real goodness. Votes: 0
There are few people who are more often in the wrong than those who cannot endure to be so. Votes: 0
We are better pleased to see those on whom we confer benefits than those from whom we receive them. Votes: 0
The duration of our passions is no more dependent on ourselves than the duration of our lives. Votes: 0
The only security is courage. Votes: 0
Tastes in young people are changed by natural impetuosity, and in the aged are preserved by habit. Votes: 0
We should scarcely desire things ardently if we were perfectly acquainted with what we desire. Votes: 0
Generosity is the vanity of giving. Votes: 0
It is worth nothing to be young without being beautiful, nor to be beautiful without being young. Votes: 0
The man who leaves a woman best pleased with herself is the one whom she will soonest wish to see. Votes: 0
Men may boast of their great actions; but they are more often the effects of chance than of design. Votes: 0
Only great men have great faults. Votes: 0
Few know how to be old. Votes: 0
Nothing is so catching as example. Votes: 0
Few men know all the ill they do. Votes: 0
A well-trained mind has less difficulty in submitting to than in guiding an ill-trained mind. Votes: 0
We may say of agreeableness, as distinct from beauty, that it is a symmetry whose rules are unknown. Votes: 0
The moderation of fortunate people comes from the calm which good fortune gives to their tempers. Votes: 0
Before strongly desiring anything, we should look carefully into the happiness of its present owner. Votes: 0
We are almost always wearied in the company of persons with whom we are not permitted to be weary. Votes: 0
A fool has not material enough to be good. [Fr., Un sot n'a pas assez d'etoffe pour etre bon.] Votes: 0
Hatred is stronger than friendship. Votes: 0
Philosophy easily triumphs over past and future ills; but present ills triumph over philosophy. Votes: 0
The intellect of the generality of women serves more to fortify their folly than their reason. Votes: 0