Great Throughts Treasury

"The passions often engender their contraries.-Avarice sometimes produces prodigality, and prodigality, avarice; we are often resolute from weakness, and daring from timidity."

"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."

"The pleasure of love is in the loving; and there is more joy in the passion one feels than in that which one inspires."

"The pomp of funerals has more regard to the vanity of the living than the honour of the dead."

"The praise we give to new comers into the world arises from the envy we bear to those who are established."

"The principal point of cleverness is to know how to value things just as they deserve."

"The prospect of being pleased tomorrow will never console me for the boredom of today."

"The qualities we have do not make us so ridiculous as those which we affect to have."

"The reason why so few people are agreeable in conversation is, that each is thinking more of what he is intending to say, than of what others are saying; and we never listen when we are planning to speak."

"The reason that lovers never weary each other is because they are always talking about themselves."

"The reason for misreckoning in expected returns of gratitude is that the pride of the giver and receiver can never agree about the value of the obligation."

"The refusal of praise is only the wish to be praised twice."

"The secret of pleasing in conversation is not to explain too much everything; to say them half and leave a little for divination is a mark of the good opinion we have of others, and nothing flatters their self-love more."

"The sort of liveliness which increases with age is not far distant from madness."

"The shame that arises from praise which we do not deserve often makes us do things we should otherwise never have attempted."

"The struggle we undergo to remain faithful to one we love is little better than infidelity."

"The sure way to be cheated is to think one's self more cunning than others."

"The word virtue is as useful to self-interest as the vices."

"The sure mark of one born with noble qualities is being born without envy."

"The vivacity which augments with years is not far from folly."

"There are a great many men valued in society who have nothing to recommend them but serviceable vices."

"The vices enter into the composition of the virtues, as poisons into that of medicines. Prudence collects and arranges them, and uses them beneficially against the ills of life."

"There are but very few men clever enough to know all the mischief they do."

"There are falsehoods which represent truth so well that it would be judging ill not to be deceived by them."

"There are certain people fated to be fools; they not only commit follies by choice, but are even constrained to do so by fortune."

"There are few good women who do not tire of their role."

"There are few people who are more often in the wrong than those who cannot endure to be thought so."

"There are few people who are not ashamed of their amours when the fit is over."

"There are few virtuous women who are not bored with their trade."

"There are few things we should keenly desire if we really knew what we wanted."

"There are few people who are not ashamed of their love affairs when the infatuation is over."

"There are follies as catching as contagious disorders."

"There are good marriages, but there are no delightful ones."

"There are few women whose charm survives their beauty."

"There are good marriages, but no delicious ones."

"There are heroes in evil as well as in good."

"There are many women who never have had one intrigue; but there are few who have had only one."

"There are more defects in temperament than in the mind."

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

"There are no events so disastrous that adroit men do not draw some advantage from them, nor any so fortunate that the imprudent cannot turn to their own prejudice."

"There are some faults which, when well-managed, make a greater figure than virtue itself."

"There are people who, like new songs, are in vogue only for a time."

"There are no chances so unlucky from which clever people are not able to reap some advantage, and none so lucky that the foolish are not able to turn to their own disadvantage."

"There are various sorts of curiosity; one is from interest, which makes us desire to know that which may be useful to us; and the other, from pride which comes from the wish to know what others are ignorant of."

"There are very few people who are not ashamed of having been in love when they no longer love each other."

"There are people who in spite of their merit disgust us, and others who please us in spite of their faults."

"There are very few things impossible in themselves; and we do not want means to conquer difficulties so much as application and resolution in the use of means."

"There are some people who would never have fallen in love if they had not heard there was such a thing."

"There are very few women in society whose virtue outlasts their beauty."

"There are ways which lead to everything, and if we have sufficient will we should always have sufficient means."