We exaggerate the glory of some men in order to detract from that of others.
We are always bored by the very people by whom it is vital not to be bored.
Most men, like plants, possess hidden qualities which chance discovers.
Happiness does not consist in things themselves but in the relish we have of them...
It is easier to fall in love when you are out of it than to get out of it when you are in.
History never embraces more than a small part of reality.
The man whom no one pleases is much more unhappy than the man who pleases no one.
We are never so generous as when giving advice.
It is not always for virtue’s sake that women are virtuous.
Our hopes, often though they deceive us, lead us pleasantly along the path of life.
In friendship, as in love, we are often more happy from the things we are ignorant of than from those we are acquainted with.
The truest comparison we can make of love is to liken it to a fever; we have no more power over the one than the other, either as to its violence or duration.
A woman often thinks she regrets the lover, when she only regrets the love.
Consolation for unhappiness can often be found in a certain satisfaction we get from looking unhappy.
He who refuses praise the first time that it is offered does so because he would hear it a second time.
Humility is often only a feigned submissiveness by which men hope to bring other people to submit to them; it is a more calculated sort of pride.
In their early passions women are in love with the lover, later they are in love with love.
It is harder to hide the feelings we have than to feign the ones we do not have.
Jealousy is always born with love, but does not die with it. In jealousy there is more of self-love than of love to another.
Love, like fire, cannot subsist without constant impulse; it ceases to live from the moment it ceases to hope or to fear.