The gratitude of most men is only a secret desire to receive greater favours.
We like better to see those on whom we confer benefits than those from whom we receive them.
It is less dangerous to do harm to most men than to do them too much good.
If we had no defects ourselves we should not take so much pleasure in observing the failings of others.
One man may be more cunning than another man, but he cannot be more cunning than all the world.
Mankind has made a virtue of moderation in order to limit the ambition of great men and to console mediocre people for their scanty fortune and their scanty merit.
We should often be ashamed of our finest actions if the world saw all the motives that produced them.
Our desire to speak of ourselves, and to reveal our defects in the best light in which we can show them, constitutes a great part of our sincerity.
The shame that arises from undeserved praise often leads us to do things which we should not otherwise have attempted.
The labours of the body free us from the pains of the mind. It is this that constitutes the happiness of the poor.
It is more necessary to study men than to study books.
The truly honest man is he who sets no value on himself.
Censorious as the world is, it is oftener favourable to false merit than unjust to true.
It is not enough to possess great qualities; we must know how to use them.
He who lives without folly is not so wise as he fancies.
Good manners are the least of all laws and the most strictly observed.
Everybody complains of a lack of memory, nobody of a lack of judgment.
The love of justice is nothing more than a fear of injustice.
Passion often makes a fool of a man of sense, and sometimes it makes a fool a man of sense.
Nature seems to have hidden in the depth of our minds a skill and a talent of which we are ignorant; only our passions are able to bring them out and to give us sometimes surer and more complete views than we could arrive at by thought and study.
Our passions are the only orators with an unfailing power of persuasion. They are an art of nature with infallible rules, and the simplest man who is possessed by passion is far more persuasive than the most eloquent speaker who is not moved by feeling.