The most necessary disposition to relish pleasures is to know how to be without them.
Temperance adds zest to pleasure.
Would you be esteemed? Live with persons that are estimable.
Perfect friendship puts us under the necessity of being virtuous. As it can only be preserved among estimable persons, it forces us to resemble them. You find in friendship the surety of good counsel, the emulation of good example, sympathy in our griefs, succor in our distress.
Politeness costs little and yields much.
We like to know the weakness of eminent persons; it consoles us for our inferiority.
The love of esteem is the life and soul of society; it unites us to one another: I want your approbation, you stand in need of mine. By forsaking the converse of men, we forsake the virtues necessary for society; for when one is alone, one is apt to grow negligent; the world forces you to have a guard over yourself.
One of the duties of old-age, is the management of time. The less that remains to us, the more valuable we ought to consider it.
The pleasures of the world are deceitful; they promise more than they give. They trouble us in seeking them, they do not satisfy us when possessing them, and they make us despair in losing them.
We live with our defects as with the odors we carry about us: we do not perceive them, but they incommode those who approach us.
Simplicity is oftenest an adroit pretence.
We can easily forgive want of means; but littleness, with means, is disgusting.
The first rule for speaking well is to think well.
