There is so great a charm in friendship, that there is even a kind of pleasure in acknowledging oneself duped by the sentiment it inspires.
Unbounded modesty is nothing more than unavowed vanity: the too humble obeisance is sometimes a disguised impertinence.
The reputation of a man is like his shadow—gigantic when it precedes him, and pigmy in its proportions when it follows.
The “point of honour” can often be made to produce, by means of vanity, as many good deeds as virtue.
More evil truths are discovered by the corruption of the heart than by the penetration of the mind.
Beauty, devoid of grace, is a mere hook without the bait.
Schismatic wranglers are like a child’s top, noisy and agitated when whipped, quiet and motionless when left alone.
He who cannot feel friendship is alike incapable of love. Let a woman beware of the man who owns that he loves no one but herself.
The rich man despises those who flatter him too much, and hates those who do not flatter him at all.
The spirit and enterprise of a courtier are all expended in the search after place and preferment; nothing remains for the fulfilment of the duties to which success compels him.