Every one speaks well of his own heart, but no one dares speak well of his own mind.
Decency is the least of all laws, but yet it is the law which is most strictly observed.
Confidence contributes more to conversation than wit.
Conceit causes more conversation than wit.
Being a blockhead is sometimes the best security against being cheated by a man of wit.
Flattery is a kind of bad money, to which our vanity gives us currency.
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.
Fortune converts everything to the advantage of her favorites.
All the passions make us commit faults; love makes us commit the most ridiculous ones.
Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.
A work can become modern only if it is first postmodern. Postmodernism thus understood is not modernism at its end but in the nascent state, and this state is constant.
A wise man thinks it more advantageous not to join the battle than to win.
A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire.
A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.
A man's worth has its season, like fruit.