Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims

„Our virtues are most frequently but vices disguised.”

„Whatever discoveries have been made in the region of self-love, there remain many unexplored territories there.”

„The duration of our passions is no more dependant upon us than the duration of our life.”

„The passions are the only advocates which always persuade. They are a natural art, the rules of which are infallible; and the simplest man with passion will be more persuasive than the most eloquent without.”

„The passions possess a certain injustice and self interest which makes it dangerous to follow them, and in reality we should distrust them even when they appear most trustworthy.”

„In the human heart there is a perpetual generation of passions; so that the ruin of one is almost always the foundation of another.”

„The moderation of those who are happy arises from the calm which good fortune bestows upon their temper.”

„We have all sufficient strength to support the misfortunes of others.”

„The constancy of the wise is only the talent of concealing the agitation of their hearts.”

„Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils; but present evils triumph over it.”

„Jealousy is in a manner just and reasonable, as it tends to preserve a good which belongs, or which we believe belongs to us, on the other hand envy is a fury which cannot endure the happiness of others.”

„If we had no faults we should not take so much pleasure in noting those of others.”

„Jealousy lives upon doubt; and comes to an end or becomes a fury as soon as it passes from doubt to certainty.”

„If we had no pride we should not complain of that of others.”

„We promise according to our hopes; we perform according to our fears.”

„Those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things.”

„We have not enough strength to follow all our reason.”

„Strength and weakness of mind are mis-named; they are really only the good or happy arrangement of our bodily organs.”

„The caprice of our temper is even more whimsical than that of Fortune.”

„Happiness is in the taste, and not in the things themselves; we are happy from possessing what we like, not from possessing what others like.”

„We are never so happy or so unhappy as we suppose.”

„Those who think they have merit persuade themselves that they are honoured by being unhappy, in order to persuade others and themselves that they are worthy to be the butt of fortune.”

„Nothing should so much diminish the satisfaction which we feel with ourselves as seeing that we disapprove at one time of that which we approve of at another.”

„Whatever difference there appears in our fortunes, there is nevertheless a certain compensation of good and evil which renders them equal.”

„Whatever great advantages nature may give, it is not she alone, but fortune also that makes the hero.”

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

„It would seem that our actions have lucky or unlucky stars to which they owe a great part of the blame or praise which is given them.”

„There are no accidents so unfortunate from which skilful men will not draw some advantage, nor so fortunate that foolish men will not turn them to their hurt.”

„Fortune turns all things to the advantage of those on whom she smiles.”

„The happiness or unhappiness of men depends no less upon their dispositions than their fortunes.”

„Sincerity is an openness of heart; we find it in very few people; what we usually see is only an artful dissimulation to win the confidence of others.”

„63.—The aversion to lying is often a hidden ambition to render our words credible and weighty, and to attach a religious aspect to our conversation.”

„64.—Truth does not do as much good in the world, as its counterfeits do evil.”

„66.—A clever man ought to so regulate his interests that each will fall in due order. Our greediness so often troubles us, making us run after so many things at the same time, that while we too eagerly look after the least we miss the greatest.”

„68.—It is difficult to define love; all we can say is, that in the soul it is a desire to rule, in the mind it is a sympathy, and in the body it is a hidden and delicate wish to possess what we love—Plus many mysteries.”

„70.—There is no disguise which can long hide love where it exists, nor feign it where it does not.”

„71.—There are few people who would not be ashamed of being beloved when they love no longer.”

„73.—We may find women who have never indulged in an intrigue, but it is rare to find those who have intrigued but once.”

„82.—Reconciliation with our enemies is but a desire to better our condition, a weariness of war, the fear of some unlucky accident.”

„91.—The largest ambition has the least appearance of ambition when it meets with an absolute impossibility in compassing its object.”

„93.—Old men delight in giving good advice as a consolation for the fact that they can no longer set bad examples.”

„113.—There may be good but there are no pleasant marriages.”

„115.—It is as easy unwittingly to deceive oneself as to deceive others.”

„116.—Nothing is less sincere than the way of asking and giving advice. The person asking seems to pay deference to the opinion of his friend, while thinking in reality of making his friend approve his opinion and be responsible for his conduct. The person giving the advice returns the confidence placed in him by eager and disinterested zeal, in doing which he is usually guided only by his own interest or reputation.”

„117.—The most subtle of our acts is to simulate blindness for snares that we know are set for us. We are never so easily deceived as when trying to deceive.”

„118.—The intention of never deceiving often exposes us to deception.”

„119.—We become so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that at last we are disguised to ourselves.”

„125.—The daily employment of cunning marks a little mind, it generally happens that those who resort to it in one respect to protect themselves lay themselves open to attack in another.”

„132.—It is far easier to be wise for others than to be so for oneself.”

„139.—One of the reasons that we find so few persons rational and agreeable in conversation is there is hardly a person who does not think more of what he wants to say than of his answer to what is said. The most clever and polite are content with only seeming attentive while we perceive in their mind and eyes that at the very time they are wandering from what is said and desire to return to what they want to say. Instead of considering that the worst way to persuade or please others is to try thus strongly to please ourselves, and that to listen well and to answer well are some of the greatest charms we can have in conversation.”

„143.—It is oftener by the estimation of our own feelings that we exaggerate the good qualities of others than by their merit, and when we praise them we wish to attract their praise.”

„149.—The refusal of praise is only the wish to be praised twice.”

„The modesty which pretends to refuse praise is but in truth a desire to be praised more highly.”

„152.—If we never flattered ourselves the flattery of others would not hurt us.”

„153.—Nature makes merit but fortune sets it to work.”

„159.—It is not enough to have great qualities, we should also have the management of them.”

„165.—Ability wins us the esteem of the true men, luck that of the people.”

„178.—What makes us like new studies is not so much the weariness we have of the old or the wish for change as the desire to be admired by those who know more than ourselves, and the hope of advantage over those who know less.”

„180.—Our repentance is not so much sorrow for the ill we have done as fear of the ill that may happen to us.”

„182.—Vices enter into the composition of virtues as poison into that of medicines. Prudence collects and blends the two and renders them useful against the ills of life.”

„186.—We do not despise all who have vices, but we do despise all who have not virtues.”

„189.—It seems that nature has at man's birth fixed the bounds of his virtues and vices.”

„197.—There are men of whom we can never believe evil without having seen it. Yet there are very few in whom we should be surprised to see it.”

„209.—Who lives without folly is not so wise as he thinks.”

„212.—Most people judge men only by success or by fortune.”

„216.—Perfect valour is to do without witnesses what one would do before all the world.”

„222.—Few persons on the first approach of age do not show wherein their body, or their mind, is beginning to fail.”

„The first foundation of friendship is not the power of conferring benefits, but the equality with which they are received, and may be returned.”

„227.—Lucky people are bad hands at correcting their faults; they always believe that they are right when fortune backs up their vice or folly.”

„229.—The good we have received from a man should make us excuse the wrong he does us.”

„237.—No one should be praised for his goodness if he has not strength enough to be wicked. All other goodness is but too often an idleness or powerlessness of will.”

„238.—It is not so dangerous to do wrong to most men, as to do them too much good.”

„By nature woman is a flirt, but her flirting changes both in the mode and object according to her opinions.”

„You have accomplished a great stroke in diplomacy when you have made others think that you have only very average abilities.”

„254.—Humility is often a feigned submission which we employ to supplant others. It is one of the devices of Pride to lower us to raise us; and truly pride transforms itself in a thousand ways, and is never so well disguised and more able to deceive than when it hides itself under the form of humility.”

„256.—In all professions we affect a part and an appearance to seem what we wish to be. Thus the world is merely composed of actors.”

„257.—Gravity is a mysterious carriage of the body invented to conceal the want of mind.”

„259.—The pleasure of love is in loving, we are happier in the passion we feel than in that we inspire.”

„260.—Civility is but a desire to receive civility, and to be esteemed polite.”

„264.—Pity is often a reflection of our own evils in the ills of others. It is a delicate foresight of the troubles into which we may fall. We help others that on like occasions we may be helped ourselves, and these services which we render, are in reality benefits we confer on ourselves by anticipation.”

„267.—A quickness in believing evil without having sufficiently examined it, is the effect of pride and laziness. We wish to find the guilty, and we do not wish to trouble ourselves in examining the crime.”

„269.—No man is clever enough to know all the evil he does.”

„276.—Absence extinguishes small passions and increases great ones, as the wind will blow out a candle, and blow in a fire.”

„277.—Women often think they love when they do not love. The business of a love affair, the emotion of mind that sentiment induces, the natural bias towards the pleasure of being loved, the difficulty of refusing, persuades them that they have real passion when they have but flirtation.”

„281.—Pride, which inspires, often serves to moderate envy.”

„284.—There are wicked people who would be much less dangerous if they were wholly without goodness.”

„286.—It is impossible to love a second time those whom we have really ceased to love.”

„293.—Moderation cannot claim the merit of opposing and overcoming Ambition: they are never found together. Moderation is the languor and sloth of the soul, Ambition its activity and heat.”

„307.—It is as proper to be boastful alone as it is ridiculous to be so in company.”

„308.—Moderation is made a virtue to limit the ambition of the great; to console ordinary people for their small fortune and equally small ability.”

„313.—How is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?”

„314.—The extreme delight we take in talking of ourselves should warn us that it is not shared by those who listen.”

„315.—What commonly hinders us from showing the recesses of our heart to our friends, is not the distrust we have of them, but that we have of ourselves.”

„316.—Weak persons cannot be sincere.”

„319.—If we take the liberty to dwell on their faults we cannot long preserve the feelings we should hold towards our friends and benefactors.”

„322.—Those only are despicable who fear to be despised.”

„329.—We believe, sometimes, that we hate flattery —we only dislike the method.”

„348.—When one loves one doubts even what one most believes.”

„349.—The greatest miracle of love is to eradicate flirtation.”

„357.—Little minds are too much wounded by little things; great minds see all and are not even hurt.”

„361.—Jealousy is always born with love, but does not always die with it.”

„363.—The evils we do to others give us less pain than those we do to ourselves.”

„366.—However we distrust the sincerity of those whom we talk with, we always believe them more sincere with us than with others.”

„371.—It is generally the fault of the loved one not to perceive when love ceases.”

„376.—Envy is destroyed by true friendship, flirtation by true love.”

„381.—The struggle we undergo to remain faithful to one we love is little better than infidelity.”

„383.—The desire of talking about ourselves, and of putting our faults in the light we wish them to be seen, forms a great part of our sincerity.”

„384.—We should only be astonished at still being able to be astonished.”

„390.—We give up more easily our interest than our taste.”

„396.—We keep our first lover for a long time—if we do not get a second.”

„399.—There is a kind of greatness which does not depend upon fortune: it is a certain manner what distinguishes us, and which seems to destine us for great things; it is the value we insensibly set upon ourselves; it is by this quality that we gain the deference of other men, and it is this which commonly raises us more above them, than birth, rank, or even merit itself.”

„405.—We reach quite inexperienced the different stages of life, and often, in spite of the number of our years, we lack experience.”

„422.—All passions make us commit some faults, love alone makes us ridiculous.”

„426.—The charm of novelty and old custom, however opposite to each other, equally blind us to the faults of our friends.”

„431.—Nothing prevents our being unaffected so much as our desire to seem so.”

„435.—Luck and temper rule the world.”

„440.—The cause why the majority of women are so little given to friendship is, that it is insipid after having felt love.”

„444.—Old fools are more foolish than young fools.”

„445.—Weakness is more hostile to virtue than vice.”

„450.—Our pride is often increased by what we retrench from our other faults.”

„456.—Sometimes we meet a fool with wit, never one with discretion.”

„457.—We should gain more by letting the world see what we are than by trying to seem what we are not.”

„458.—Our enemies come nearer the truth in the opinions they form of us than we do in our opinion of ourselves.”

„468.—Some bad qualities form great talents.”

„476.—Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.”

„482.—The mind attaches itself by idleness and habit to whatever is easy or pleasant. This habit always places bounds to our knowledge, and no one has ever yet taken the pains to enlarge and expand his mind to the full extent of its capacities.”

„486.—More persons exist without self-love than without envy.”

„489.—However wicked men may be, they do not dare openly to appear the enemies of virtue, and when they desire to persecute her they either pretend to believe her false or attribute crimes to her.”

„496.—Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.”

„501.—Love, though so very agreeable, pleases more by its ways than by itself.”

„502.—A little wit with good sense bores less in the long run than much wit with ill nature.”

„For many reasons we may be disgusted with life, but for none may we despise it.”

„the whole of our life is but one long agitation.”

„Passions are only the different degrees of the heat or coldness of the blood.”

„Moderation is like temperance in eating; we could eat more but we fear to make ourselves ill.”

„One kind of happiness is to know exactly at what point to be miserable.”

„Love is to the soul of him who loves, what the soul is to the body which it animates.”

„Justice in those judges who are moderate is but a love of their place.”

„When we are tired of loving we are quite content if our mistress should become faithless, to loose us from our fidelity.”

„The first impulse of joy which we feel at the happiness of our friends arises neither from our natural goodness nor from friendship; it is the result of self- love, which flatters us with being lucky in our own turn, or in reaping something from the good fortune of our friends.”

„In the adversity of our best friends we always find something which is not wholly displeasing to us.”

„How shall we hope that another person will keep our secret if we do not keep it ourselves.”

„There are none who press so heavily on others as the lazy ones, when they have satisfied their idleness, and wish to appear industrious.”

„One has never less reason than when one despairs of finding it in others.”

„There are crimes which become innocent and even glorious by their brilliancy,* their number, or their excess; thus it happens that public robbery is called financial skill, and the unjust capture of provinces is called a conquest.”

„One never finds in man good or evil in excess.”

„Those who are incapable of committing great crimes do not easily suspect others.”

„The pomp of funerals concerns rather the vanity of the living, than the honour of the dead.”

„Whatever variety and change appears in the world, we may remark a secret chain, and a regulated order of all time by Providence, which makes everything follow in due rank and fall into its destined course.”

„That man who has never been in danger cannot answer for his courage.”

„We more often place bounds on our gratitude than on our desires and our hopes.”

„Imitation is always unhappy, for all which is counterfeit displeases by the very things which charm us when they are original (Naturelles).”

„A confidence in being able to please is often an infallible means of being displeasing.”

„The confidence we have in ourselves arises in a great measure from that that we have in others.”

„There is a general revolution which changes the tastes of the mind as well as the fortunes of the world.”

„There are fine things which are more brilliant when unfinished than when finished too much.”

„Luxury and too refined a policy in states are a sure presage of their fall, because all parties looking after their own interest turn away from the public good.”

„The most just comparison of love is that of a fever, and we have no power over either, as to its violence or its duration.”

„We always fear to see those whom we love when we have been flirting with others.”

„the same man who will run over land and sea for his own interest becomes suddenly paralyzed when engaged for that of others”

„Hope and fear are inseparable.”

„The taste changes, but the will remains the same.”

„The power which women whom we love have over us is greater than that which we have over ourselves.”

„That which makes us believe so easily that others have defects is that we all so easily believe what we wish.”

„tastes are not always the same, and what is good at one time will not seem so at another.”

„The labour of the body frees us from the pains of the mind, and thus makes the poor happy.”

„Few things are needed to make a wise man happy; nothing can make a fool content; that is why most men are miserable.”

„We trouble ourselves less to become happy, than to make others believe we are so.”

„It is more easy to extinguish the first desire than to satisfy those which follow.”

„Before strongly desiring anything we should examine what happiness he has who possesses it.”

„A true friend is the greatest of all goods, and that of which we think least of acquiring.”

„Prudence and love are not made for each other; in the ratio that love increases, prudence diminishes.”

„It is sometimes pleasing to a husband to have a jealous wife; he hears her always speaking of the beloved object.”

„The wise man finds it better not to enter the encounter than to conquer.”

„It is more necessary to study men than books.”

„A good woman is a hidden treasure; he who discovers her will do well not to boast about it.”

„If we think we love for love's sake we are much mistaken.”

„Jealousy is always born with love, but does not always die with it.”

„When we love too much it is difficult to discover when we have ceased to be beloved.”

„Chance makes us known to others and to ourselves.”

„We find very few people of good sense, except those who are of our own opinion.”

„We commonly praise the good hearts of those who admire us.”

„Man only blames himself in order that he may be praised.”

„Little minds are wounded by the smallest things.”

„That which makes us so bitter against those who do us a shrewd turn, is because they think themselves more clever than we are.”

„We are always bored by those whom we bore.”

„The harm that others do us is often less than that we do ourselves.”

„We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it.”

„There is nothing more natural, nor more deceptive, than to believe that we are beloved.”

„It is more difficult to hide the opinions we have than to feign those which we have not.”

„Renewed friendships require more care than those that have never been broken.”

„A man to whom no one is pleasing is much more unhappy than one who pleases nobody.”

„Sincerity is an openness of heart, which shows us what we are, a love of truth, a dislike to deception, a wish to compensate our faults and to lessen them by the merit of confessing them. Confidence leaves us less liberty, its rules are stricter, it requires more prudence and reticence, and we are not always free to give it. It relates not only to ourselves, since our interests are often mixed up with those of others; it requires great delicacy not to expose our friends in exposing ourselves, not to draw upon their goodness to enhance the value of what we give.”

„Most frequently we make confidants from vanity, a love of talking, a wish to win the confidence of others, and make an exchange of secrets.”

„It is far safer and more honest to tell nothing than to be silent when we have begun to tell.”

„Everyone agrees that a secret should be kept intact, but everyone does not agree as to the nature and importance of secresy. Too often we consult ourselves as to what we should say, what we should leave unsaid. There are few permanent secrets, and the scruple against revealing them will not last for ever.”

„A lofty mind always thinks nobly, it easily creates vivid, agreeable, and natural fancies, places them in their best light, clothes them with all appropriate adornments, studies others' tastes, and clears away from its own thoughts all that is useless and disagreeable.”

„A difference exists between a working mind and a business-like mind. We can undertake business without turning it to our own interest. Some are clever only in what does not concern them, and the reverse in all that does. There are others again whose cleverness is limited to their own business, and who know how to turn everything to their own advantage.”

„One can be a fool with much wit, and one need not be a fool even with very little wit.”

„there are few who have a taste fixed and independent of that of their friends, they follow example and fashion which generally form the standard of taste.”

„We do not see with the same eyes what does and what does not relate to us. Our taste is guided by the bent of our self-love and temper, which supplies us with new views which we adapt to an infinite number of changes and uncertainties. Our taste is no longer our own, we cease to control it, without our consent it changes, and the same objects appear to us in such divers aspects that ultimately we fail to perceive what we have seen and heard.”

„Everyone seeks to find his pleasure and his advantage at the expense of others. We prefer ourselves always to those with whom we intend to live, and they almost always perceive the preference. It is this which disturbs and destroys society. We should discover a means to hide this love of selection since it is too ingrained in us to be in our power to destroy.”

„To make society pleasant, it is essential that each should retain his freedom of action. A man should not see himself, or he should see himself without dependence, and at the same time amuse himself. He should have the power of separating himself without that separation bringing any change on the society.”

„As we should stand at a certain distance to view objects, so we should also stand at a distance to observe society; each has its proper point of view from which it should be regarded. It is quite right that it should not be looked at too closely, for there is hardly a man who in all matters allows himself to be seen as he really is.”

„The reason why so few persons are agreeable in conversation is that each thinks more of what he desires to say, than of what the others say, and that we make bad listeners when we want to speak.”

„Every kind of conversation, however witty it may be, is not equally fitted for all clever persons; we should select what is to their taste and suitable to their condition, their sex, their talents, and also choose the time to say it. We should observe the place, the occasion, the temper in which we find the person who listens to us, for if there is much art in speaking to the purpose, there is no less in knowing when to be silent.”

„Those who lay down rules too often break them, and the safest we are able to give is to listen much, to speak little, and to say nothing that will ever give ground for regret.”

„there is no one who has not some falseness in some corner of his mind or his taste.”

„There is an air which belongs to the figure and talents of each individual; we always lose it when we abandon it to assume another.”

„All men want to be different, and to be greater than they are; they seek for an air other than their own, and a mind different from what they possess; they take their style and manner at chance.”

„Thousands of people with good qualities are displeasing; thousands pleasing with far less abilities, and why? Because the first wish to appear to be what they are not, the second are what they appear.”