"We are sometimes as different from ourselves as we are from others."

"We are strong enough to bear the misfortunes of others."

"We are very far from always knowing our own wishes."

"We come altogether fresh and raw into the several stages of life, and often find ourselves without experience, despite our years."

"We do not praise others, ordinarily, but in order to be praised ourselves."

"We easily forgive our friends those faults that do no affect us ourselves."

"We have no patience with other people's vanity because it is offensive to our own."

"We may seem great in an employment below our worth, but we very often look little in one that is too big for us."

"We may sooner be brought to love them that hate us, than them that love us more than we would have them do."

"We often pardon those that annoy us, but we cannot pardon those we annoy."

"We only acknowledge small faults in order to make it appear that we are free from great ones."

"We promise in proportion to our hopes, and we deliver in proportion to our fears."

"We say little, when vanity does not make us speak."

"We seldom find people ungrateful so long as we are in a condition to render them service."

"We seldom praise anyone in good earnest, except such as admire us."

"We should often blush for our very best actions, if the world did but see all the motives upon which they were done."

"We should often feel ashamed of our best actions if the world could see all the motives which produced them."

"We would rather speak ill of ourselves than not talk about ourselves at all."

"What keeps us from abandoning ourselves entirely to one vice, often, is the fact that we have several."

"What makes the pain we feel from shame and jealousy so cutting is that vanity can give us no assistance in bearing them."

"What we call generosity is for the most part only the vanity of giving; and we exercise it because we are more fond of that vanity than of the thing we give."

"Whatever good things people say of us, they tell us nothing new."

"When a man is in love, he doubts, very often, what he most firmly believes."

"A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice."

"When we disclaim praise, it is only showing our desire to be praised a second time."

"Pride does not wish to owe and vanity does not wish to pay."

"Nothing is impossible; there are ways that lead to everything, and if we had sufficient will we should always have sufficient means. It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible."

"The common foible of women who have been handsome is to forget that they are no longer so."

"When a man finds no peace within himself, it is useless to seek it elsewhere."

"Few things are impracticable in themselves; and it is for want of application, rather than of means, that men fail to succeed."

"We all have enough strength to endure the misfortunes of others."

"The height of ability in the least able consists in knowing how to submit to the good leadership of others."

"Although men flatter themselves with their great actions, they are not so often the result of a great design as of chance."

"Chance corrects us of many faults that reason would not know how to correct."

"Everyone complains of the badness of his memory, but nobody of his judgment."

"If it requires great tact to speak to the purpose, it requires no less to know when to be silent."

"Passions are the only orators to always convinces us."

"How can we accept another to keep our secret if we have been unable to keep it ourselves."

"Weak people cannot be sincere."

"The confidence which we have in ourselves gives birth to much of that which we have in others."

"As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so small wits seem to have the gift of speaking much and saying nothing."

"It is great folly to wish to be wise all alone."

"We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears."

"We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them."

"We credit scarcely any persons with good sense except those who are of our opinion."

"We think very few people sensible, except those who are of our opinion."

"If we are to judge of love by its consequences, it more nearly resembles hatred than friendship."

"We are nearer loving those who hate us than those who love us more than we wish."

"Listening well and answering well is one of the greatest perfections that can be obtained in conversation."

"Why is our memory good enough to recall to the last detail things that have happened to us, yet not good enough to recall how often we have told them to the same person."