Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Flattery is false money, which would not be current were it not for our vanity.
Passion makes idiots of the cleverest men, and makes the biggest idiots clever.
No man can love a second time the person whom he has once truly ceased to love.
It is much easier to seem fitted for posts we do not fill than for those we do.
How deceitful hope may be, yet she carries us on pleasantly to the end of life.
There are some who never would have loved if they never had heard it spoken of.
Behind many acts that are thought ridiculous there lie wise and weighty motives.
It is harder to hide the feelings we have than to feign the ones we do not have.
There are many predicaments in life that one must be a bit crazy to escape from.
The strongest symptom of wisdom in man is his being sensible of his own follies.
The clemency of Princes is often but policy to win the affections of the people.
The man that thinks he loves his mistress for her own sake is mightily mistaken.
We are never so ridiculous through what we are as through what we pretend to be.
We are nearer loving those who hate us than those who love us more than we wish.
Vanity, shame, and above all disposition, often make men brave and women chaste.
True bravery means doing alone that which one could do if all the world were by.
The only good copies are those which make us see the absurdity of bad originals.
Great names abase, instead of elevating, those who do not know how to bear them.
He that would be a great man must learn to turn every accident to some advantage.
Politeness is a desire to be treated politely, and to be esteemed polite oneself.
We sometimes imagine we hate flattery, but we only hate the way we are flattered.
There is scarcely any man sufficiently clever to appreciate all the evil he does.
Funeral pomp is more for the vanity of the living than for the honor of the dead.
Flattery is a counterfeit money which, but for vanity, would have no circulation.
We promise in proportion to our hopes, and we deliver in proportion to our fears.
The man whom no one pleases is much more unhappy than the man who pleases no one.
Whilst weakness and timidity keep us to our duty, virtue has often all the honor.
Commonplace minds usually condemn what is beyond the reach of their understanding.
Happiness does not consist in things themselves but in the relish we have of them.
We torment ourselves rather to make it appear that we are happy than to become so.
Loyalty is in most people only a ruse used by self-interest to attract confidence.
There are several remedies which will cure love, but there are no infallible ones.
Self-love, as it happens to be well or ill conducted, constitutes virtue and vice.
Love often leads on to ambition, but seldom does one return from ambition to love.
It is sometimes necessary to play the fool to avoid being deceived by cunning men.
More men are guilty of treason through weakness than any studied design to betray.
It is not always from valor or from chastity that men are brave, and women chaste.
We have no patience with other people's vanity because it is offensive to our own.
Some people displease with merit, and others' very faults and defects are pleasing.
Our hopes, often though they deceive us, lead us pleasantly along the path of life.
Our good qualities expose us more to hatred and persecution than all the ill we do.
Our actions are like blank rhymes, to which everyone applies what sense he pleases.
That conduct often seems ridiculous the secret reasons of which are wise and solid.
If we judge love by most of its effects, it resembles rather hatred than affection.
We always love those who admire us, but we do not always love those whom we admire.
Minds of moderate caliber ordinarily condemn everthing which is beyond their range.
As uncommon a thing as true love is, it is yet easier to find than true friendship.
When we disclaim praise, it is only showing our desire to be praised a second time.
What we cut off from our other faults is very often but so much added to our pride.
The happiness and unhappiness of men depends as much on their ethics as on fortune.