(54.) Most women have hardly any principles;[178] they are led by their passions, and form their morals and manners after those whom they love.
(55.) Women exceed the generality of men in love; but men are their superiors in friendship. Men are the cause that women do not love one another.
(56.) There is some danger in making fun of people. Lise, who is more or less in years, in trying to render a young woman ridiculous, has changed so much as to become frightful. She made so many grimaces and contortions in imitating her, and now has grown so ugly, that the person she mimicked cannot have a better foil.
(57.) In the city many male and female nincompoops have the reputation of being intelligent; at court many men who are very intelligent are considered dolts; and a beautiful woman who has some intelligence will hardly escape being called “foolish” by other women.
(58.) A man keeps another personʼs secret better than his own; a woman, on the contrary, keeps her own secrets better than any other personʼs.
(59.) There is no love, however violent, raging in the heart of a young woman, but there is still some room left for interest and ambition.
(60.) There comes a time when the wealthiest women ought to marry; they seldom let slip the first opportunity without repenting it for many a day; it seems that the reputation of their wealth diminishes in the same proportion as their beauty does. On the contrary, every thing is favourable to young girls, even menʼs opinions, for they attribute to them every accomplishment, to render them still more desirable.
(61.) To how many girls has a great beauty been of no other use but to make them expect a large fortune!
(62.) Handsome girls are apt to gratify the revenge of the lovers they have ill-treated, by giving their hand to ugly, old, or unworthy husbands.
(63.) Most women judge of the merits and good looks of a man by the impression he makes on them, and very rarely allow either of those qualities to a person who is indifferent to them.