There are pious liars, just as there are brave liars. Brave warriors do not sin by boasting, and godly are those who set us an example, and do not act like a pretended fan.
Jealous love is more like hate.
Fashionable vices seem virtues.
Young people behave badly because, more often than not, they are poorly educated by their parents.
Sometimes we love without knowing it, And often we call love a vain fantasy.
There is no cure in the world for gossip.
We must live honestly and despise backbiting, and let intriguers talk as much as they want.
Incense smoke does not nourish you. Praise alone is not enough for humanity, give it something more substantial; the best way to stimulate someone is to put something in their hand.
There is nothing sweeter than defeating the opposition of a beautiful woman.
Love is not driven by reason.
A book of wisdom makes a fool more foolish.
Things don't move from words. You must act, not talk, actions settle a dispute better than words.
Imitate men in their inclinations, follow their rules, be indulgent to their foibles, delight in their deeds, — and you will do with them what you will; that's the best way, you don't have to pretend... Don't be afraid of exaggerations, the smartest of people will know this, as well as the last fool, you will swallow whole the purest absurdity, the clearest stupidity, if the food is wrapped in fluff. It cannot be said that such a thing is honest, but you have to adapt to the people you need. If there is no other way, the culprit is not the one who flatters, but the one who wants to be flattered.
Sincerity is not a vice.
The pretense unites those for whom hypocrisy is an instrument of bail.
The most unbearable thing in love is calmness.
Serene happiness can be boring, in life it is impossible to avoid the ebbs and flows: along with the obstacles, stronger love is ignited, and pleasure is more precious.
The powerful blow of vice is felt when it becomes known to the whole world. Scolding is bearable, but mocking is a far different matter. Nothing wants to be cheesy.
Whatever may be said, there is something so unusual in man that no scientist can explain.
Authors are actors.
Even reason does not always seek abundance, and people always settle more easily in the center than at the extremes.
In times of savagery, men have no doubts even when the greatest evils are committed, and in the Age of Enlightenment, they tremble even in the presence of the greatest good. They feel the old evil, they see the ways by which they can correct it, but with it, they also see the new evil that arises from this correction.
Education gives birth to ideas in us, it has a channel through which ideas pass into our heads. Our education is a factory of ideas.
When the character is generally beautiful, it is not a misfortune if some defects are also felt.
The cruelty of the laws prevents their observance.
The envious person is his own enemy, because he suffers from an evil of his own making.
When the Louisiana savages want to pluck a fruit from a tree, they cut the tree by the root and then pluck the fruit. It's still a kind of despotic government.
The best way to instill in children the love of the country is for it to exist in the parents as well.
All aggrandizement, all strength, all authority, is relative.
People are born virtuous, and justice is an intrinsic quality of them, like existence itself.