"The exceeding delight we take in talking..." - Quote by Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“When our vices leave us, we like to imagine it is we who are leaving them.”

“A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.”

“Madmen and fools see everything through the medium of humor.”

“I derive no pleasure from talking with a young woman simply because she has regular features.”

“Modest egotism is the salt of conversation; you do not want too much of it, but if it is altogether omitted, everything tastes flat.”

“My neighbors tell me of their adventures with famous gentlemen and ladies, what notabilities they met at the dinner-table; but I am no more interested in such things than in the contents of the Daily Times. The interest and the conversation are about costume and manners chiefly; but a goose is a goose still, dress it as you will.”

“There is no self-interest completely unrelated to others' interests. Due to the fundamental interconnectedness which lies at the heart of reality, your interest is also my interest. From this it becomes clear that "my" interest and "your" interest are intimately connected. In a deep sense, they converge.”

“Men are less hesitant about harming someone who makes himself loved than one who makes himself feared because love is held together by a chain of obligation which, since men are wretched creatures, is broken on every occasion in which their own interests are concerned; but fear is sustained by dread of punishment which will never abandon you.”

“The extreme pleasure we take in speaking of ourselves should make us apprehensive that it gives hardly any to those who listen to us.”