The fame of great men ought to be judged always by their big, fancy names.
To establish ourselves in the world, we have to do all we can to appear established. To succeed in the world, we do everything we can to appear successful.
The man that thinks he loves his mistress for her own sake is mightily mistaken.
People that are conceited of their own merit take pride in being unfortunate, that themselves and others may think them considerable enough to be the envy and the mark of fortune.
What makes the pain we feel from shame and jealousy so cutting is that vanity can give us no assistance in bearing them.
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.
Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.
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.
When a man must force himself to be faithful in his love, this is hardly better than unfaithfulness.
All the passions make us commit faults; love makes us commit the most ridiculous ones.
The heart is forever making the head its fool.
Perfect behavior is born of complete indifference.
We are never so ridiculous through what we are as through what we pretend to be.
It is from a weakness and smallness of mind that men are opinionated; and we are very loath to believe what we are not able to comprehend.
Those who occupy their minds with small matters, generally become incapable of greatness.
There are bad people who would be less dangerous if they were quite devoid of goodness.
In love we often doubt what we most believe.
Funeral pomp is more for the vanity of the living than for the honor of the dead.
It is not enough to have great qualities; We should also have the management of them.
The principal point of cleverness is to know how to value things just as they deserve.