No matter how much care we put into hiding our passions under the appearances of devotion and honor, they can always be seen to peer out through these covers.
If we had no faults of our own, we should not take so much pleasure in noticing those in others.
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.
Truth has scarce done so much good in the world as the false appearances of it have done hurt.
As the great ones of this world are unable to bestow health of body or peace of mind, we always pay too high a price for any good they can do.
Renewed friendships require more care than those that have never been broken.
The boldest stroke and best act of friendship is not to disclose our own failings to a friend, but to show him his own.
A man is sometimes better off deceived about the one he loves, than undeceived.
Whatever good things people say of us, they tell us nothing new.
The appearances of goodness and merit often meet with a greater reward from the world than goodness and merit themselves.
The exceeding delight we take in talking about ourselves should give us cause to fear that we are giving but very little pleasureto our listeners.
The qualities we have, make us so ridiculous as those which we affect.
A man is sometimes as different from himself as he is from others.
Perfect behavior is born of complete indifference.
On why I don't trust democracy without extremely powerful systems of accountability and recall What seems to be generosity is often only disguised ambition - which despises small interests to gain great ones.
Pride does not wish to owe and vanity does not wish to pay.
When we exaggerate our friends' tenderness towards us, it is often less from gratitude than from a desire to exhibit our own virtue.
We sometimes imagine we hate flattery, but we only hate the way we are flattered.
We are much mistaken if we think that men are always brave from a principle of valor, or women chaste from a principle of modesty.
As long as we love, we can forgive.
What is called generosity is usually only the vanity of giving; we enjoy the vanity more than the thing given.
Envy is destroyed by true friendship, as coquetry by true love.
We always like those who admire us.
We should gain more by letting the world see what we are than by trying to seem what we are not.
Pride has a greater share than goodness in the reproofs we give other people for their faults; and we chide them not so much to make them mend those faults as to make them believe that we ourselves are without fault.
A man often believes himself leader when he is led; as his mind endeavors to reach one goal, his heart insensibly drags him towards another.
We should not judge a man's merits by his great qualities, but by the use he makes of them.
Love, all agreeable as it is, charms more by the fashion in which it displays itself, than by its own true merit.
We are more often treacherous through weakness than through calculation.
A resolution never to deceive exposes a man to be often deceived.
Affected simplicity is an elegant imposture.
The desire of appearing clever often prevents our becoming so.
Whatever discoveries we may have made in the regions of self-love, there still remain many unknown lands.
Though confidence is very fine, and makes the future sunny; I want no confidence for mine, I'd rather have the money
We can never be certain of our courage until we have faced danger.
People always complain about their memories, never about their minds.
The world more often rewards the appearances of merit than merit itself.
Moral severity in women is only a dress or paint which they use to set off their beauty.
A great many men's gratitude is nothing but a secret desire to hook in more valuable kindnesses hereafter.
Interest blinds some people, and enlightens others.
There are persons whose only merit consists in saying and doing stupid things at the right time, and who ruin all if they change their manners.
There are some disguised falsehoods so like truths, that 'twould be to judge ill not to be deceived by them.
Happiness does not consist in things themselves but in the relish we have of them.
It is not always for virtue's sake that women are virtuous.
The prospect of being pleased tomorrow will never console me for the boredom of today.
Few things are needed to make a wise man happy; nothing can make a fool content; that is why most men are miserable.
Only great men have great faults.
Everyone takes pleasure in returning small obligations, many people acknowledge moderate ones; but there are only a scarce few who do not pay great ones with ingratitude.
Jealousy contains more of self-love than of love.
We should desire very few things passionately if we did but perfectly know the nature of the things we desire.
History never embraces more than a small part of reality
One forgives to the degree that one loves.
It is often hard to determine whether a clear, open, and honorable proceeding is the result of goodness or of cunning.
We have not enough strength to follow all our reason.
What makes us so bitter against people who outwit us is that they think themselves cleverer than we are.
There are two things which Man cannot look at directly without flinching: the sun and death.
There are two sorts of constancy in love one arises from continually discovering in the loved person new subjects for love, the other arises from our making a merit of being constant.
A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.
Whatever distrust we may have of the sincerity of those who converse with us, we always believe they will tell us more truth than they do to others.
Opportunity makes us known to others, but more to ourselves.
