Where talent is a dwarf, self-esteem is a giant..

The happiness of the tender heart is increased by what it can take away from the wretchedness of others..

Public opinion is a courtesan, whom we seek to please without respecting..

Some delicate matters must be treated like pins, because if they are not seized by the right end, we get pricked..

Genius, like a torch, shines less in the broad daylight of the present than in the night of the past..

Every generous illusion of youth leaves a wrinkle as it departs. Experience is the successive disenchanting of the things of life; it is reason enric….

The grave is a crucible where memory is purified; we only remember a dead friend by those qualities which make him regretted..

To endeavor to move by the same discourse hearers who differ in age, sex, position and education is to attempt to open all locks with the same key..

There are some errors so sweet that we repent them only to bring them to memory..

It is more pitiable once to have been rich than not to be rich now..

Let us respect gray Lairs, but, above all, our own..

To protect ourselves against the storms of passion, marriage with a woman is a harbor in the tempest; but with a bad woman it is a tempest in the har….

Conscience serves us especially to judge of the actions of others..

The great chastisement of a knave is not to be known, but to know himself..

It is not what we have but what we enjoy that constitutes our abundance..

The most exacting jailer is our own conscience..

Rage is a short-lived fury..

The politics of courtiers resemble their shadows; they cringe and turn with the sun of the day..

We find ourselves less witty in remembering what we have said than in dreaming of what we would have said..

Perfect servants would be the worst of all for certain masters, whose happiness consists in finding fault with them..

Our interests are grains of opium to our consciences, but they only put it to sleep for a terrible awakening..