We would often be ashamed of our finest actions if the world understood all the motives which produced them.

True eloquence consists in saying all that is necessary, and nothing but what is necessary.

Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers.

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

Hope, deceitful as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route.

Jealousy lives upon doubts, it becomes madness or ceases entirely as soon as we pass from doubt to certainty.