Sometimes in life situations develop that only the half-crazy can get out of.
Numberless arts appear foolish whose secret motives are most wise and weighty.
Virtue is the habit of acting according to wisdom. GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ, "Felicity", Leibniz: Political Writings Virtue is harder to be got than knowledge of the world; and, if lost in a young man, is seldom recovered. JOHN LOCKE, Some Thoughts Concerning Education However wicked men may be, they do not dare openly to appear the enemies of virtue, and when they desire to persecute her they either pretend to believe her false or attribute crimes to her.
We may seem great in an employment below our worth, but we very often look little in one that is too big for us.
The praise we give to new comers into the world arises from the envy we bear to those who are established.
Our own distrust gives a fair pretence for the knavery of other people.
Most women lament not the death of their lovers so much out of real affection for them, as because they would appear worthy of love.
We easily forget crimes that are known to none but ourselves.
There is a kind of elevation which does not depend on fortune; it is a certain air which distinguishes us, and seems to destine us for great things; it is a price which we imperceptibly set upon ourselves.
The great interests of man: air and light, the joy of having a body, the voluptuousness of looking.
The reason why lovers and their mistresses never tire of being together is that they are always talking of themselves. [Fr., Ce qui fait que amants et les maitresses ne s'ennuient point d'etre ensemble; c'est qu'ils parlent toujours d'eux memes.]
A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.
It is as easy to deceive one's self without perceiving it, as it is difficult to deceive others without their finding out.
Moderation is an ostentatious proof of our strength of character.
There are some persons who only disgust with their abilities, there are persons who please even with their faults.
We may say of agreeableness, as distinct from beauty, that it is a symmetry whose rules are unknown.
The truest comparison we can make of love is to liken it to a fever; we have no more power over the one than the other, either as to its violence or duration.
Familiarity is a suspension of almost all the laws of civility, which libertinism has introduced into society under the notion of ease.
Female gossips are generally actuated by active ignorance.
Moderation resembles temperance. We are not so unwilling to eat more, as afraid of doing ourselves harm by it.
In love, the quickest is always the best cure.
Before we passionately desire a thing, we should examine the happiness of its possessor.
We often do shallow good in order to accomplish evil with impunity.
Great and glorious events which dazzle the beholder are represented by politicians as the outcome of grand designs whereas they are usually products of temperaments and passions.
Whatever pretended causes we may blame our afflictions upon, it is often nothing but self-interest and vanity that produce them.
