Men would not live in society long if they were not each others dupes.
In the human heart there is a ceaseless birth of passions, so that the destruction of one is almost always the establishment of another.
The duration of our passions is no more dependent on ourselves than the duration of our lives.
Solemnity is a device of the body to hide the faults of the mind.
We often pride ourselves on even the most criminal passions, but envy is a timid and shamefaced passion we never dare to acknowledge.
Ridicule dishonours more than dishonour.
There is merit without rank, but there is no rank without some merit.
Affected simplicity is an elegant imposture.
However much we may distrust men's sincerity, we always believe they speak to us more sincerely than to others.
We feel good and ill only in proportion to our self-love.
There are some bad qualities which make great talents.
Tastes in young people are changed by natural impetuosity, and in the aged are preserved by habit.
However evil men may be they dare not be openly hostile to virtue, and so when they want to attack it they pretend to find it spurious , or impute crimes to it.
Many men are contemptuous of riches; few can give them away.
It often happens that things come into the mind in a more finished form than could have been achieved after much study.
Humility is the altar upon which God wishes that we should offer Him His sacrifices.
Idleness is more an infirmity of the mind than of the body.
We endeavor to make a virtue of the faults we are unwilling to correct.
Silence is the best tactic for he who distrusts himself.
It requires no small degree of ability to know when to conceal one's ability.
Our actions are like blank rhymes, to which everyone applies what sense he pleases.
The ambitious deceive themselves in proposing an end to their ambition; that end, when attained, becomes a means.
Those who have the most cunning affect all their lives to condemn cunning; that they may make use of it on some great occasion, and to some great end.
For envy, like lightning, generally strikes at the top Or any point which sticks out from the ordinary level. LUCRETIUS, De Rerum Natura Our envy always outlives the felicity of its object.
One of the greatest and also the commonest of faults is for men to believe that, because they never hear their shortcomings spoken of, or read about them in cold print, others can have no knowledge of them. GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG, The Reflections of Lichtenberg We are often more agreeable through our faults than our good qualities.
